Curricula Vitae in UPS Library

Name	Personal Focus	Summary
John Barnett Dean		John Barnett is Library Dean at USC Upstate.
Virginia Cononie Associate Librarian		Virginia graduated from Lander University with a Bachelor's in English and earned her MLIS from USC Columbia. Virginia serves the library through reference services, collection management, and information literacy instruction. She is also the library liaison to English and African American Studies. Cononie also coordinates all library marketing and outreach through social media platforms, library hosted events. and library marketing efforts.
Laura Karas Senior Instructor		Laura holds a BFA from Savannah College of Art and Design in both Interior Design and Historic Preservation with minors in Architectural History and Art History. In 2000, she completed her MLIS from University of South Carolina. While a graduate student, Laura worked as a graduate assistant in the USC Upstate Library and then joined the library faculty. Laura is now a Senior Instructor in the library and currently oversees LibGuides, a CMS that houses online web based research tools.
Dr. Andrew Kearns Librarian	Library Sciences	Andrew Kearns is a Coord. of Distributed Education at USC Upstate.
Ann Elizabeth Merryman Associate Librarian	Library, leveraging partnerships among smaller repositories, advocating for the continued expansion of both the University Archives and the University Library	Ann holds a B.A. in Business and Economics from Benedictine University and an MLIS from the University of South Carolina. She has more than 24 years of business experience in the public sector prior to joining USC Upstate. Her primary responsibility in the library is managing the University Archives and Special Collections, with a secondary role as a reference librarian. She has been instrumental in elevating the University Archives into a collection that is open, usable, and connected.
Erika Renee Montgomery Affiliate Librarian		Erika graduated from USC Upstate with a Bachelor’s in Psychology and received a Master’s in Library and Information Science from USC Columbia. Alongside this, she has more than six years of experience working in library settings, most of which have been spent in the USC Upstate library. Her primary responsibilities currently include answering questions at the Reference Desk, creating and updating LibGuides, being the co-liaison for Sociology, and doing library instruction sessions.
Jonathan Newton Affiliate Librarian		Jonathan Newton is an Instructor Librarian; Coordinator of Access Services in the Department of Library, University of SC Upstate.
Allison Christine Read Affiliate Librarian		Allison graduated from Erskine College in 2007 with a Bachelor’s degree in English. She then completed her Master’s in Library and Information Science at USC Columbia in 2008. Allison currently works part-time as the Easley Campus Library Coordinator at Tri-County Technical College and part-time as a reference librarian at USC Upstate.
John Siegel Associate Librarian	trauma-informed librarianship, intellectual freedom, meeting needs of diverse populations (LGBTQ+, people with disabilities, military, & nontraditional)	John Siegel joined USC Upstate in July 2018. He earned an Associate in Arts (A.A.) degree from the City Colleges of Chicago, a Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) in social work from San Francisco State University, and Master of Library Science (M.L.S.) from the University of Maryland. In addition, he completed a Master of Education (M.Ed.) in adult and professional learning at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. His professional interests include trauma-informed services and intellectual freedom.
Mark Lowell Smith Affiliate Librarian		Mark graduated from USC Upstate in 1995 and is now completing an MLIS from USC. He currently works in the technical services unit of the library where he handles the Shipping/Receiving for the Library. Before coming to USC Upstate, Mark worked six years with the Spartanburg County Public Library working at their Boiling Springs branch.