Elissa Sperling joined Princeton University Library (PUL) from NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, where she worked as a Metadata Librarian. Prior to NASA, she worked in various libraries, archives, and museums in the United States and abroad. Elissa holds a Master of Information Studies from McGill University, and a Bachelor of Arts in Astronomy, Physics & Russian and Eastern European Studies from Wesleyan University.

What role do you play as Physics and Astrophysics Librarian? 

In addition to being the subject librarian for the physics and astrophysical sciences departments, I’m also the liaison librarian to the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL). My duties entail working to form relationships with all sectors of each department including undergraduate students, graduate students, postdocs, faculty, researchers, and staff. 

I have been doing outreach wherever I can, including establishing an onsite presence at PPPL. That includes fielding reference questions related to these disciplines,  as well as recommending resources, databases, tools, workflows, and services. I provide tours, orientations, tutorials, and workshops, and also assist with in-depth research requests. On the faculty side, I assist with citation management and publication tracking. With students, I teach library sessions for first year writing seminars. I also organize watch parties for science space mission launches and work with colleagues to support student clubs. 

I am involved in quite a few projects for physical collections, notably thousands of technical reports from PPPL. I also manage funds for subscriptions and purchases for physical and electronic resources in these fields, and gather numerous usage statistics to support data-driven decision making. 

Can you tell us a bit about your background and what led you to this role? 

I became a librarian because I want to contribute to making equitable access to information a reality. The profession is also conveniently flexible, so I can shift roles with relative ease. Plus, libraries have always been my home away from home. 

During my undergraduate studies, I triple majored in astronomy, physics, and Russian and Eastern European Studies. I studied abroad in western Russia and Siberia. Before starting my graduate studies, I was a Fulbright grantee to Ukraine during 2013-2014. My studies and travels have allowed me to appreciate the breadth and depth of information and how it can take on so many different forms and expressions. 

I spent the last five years at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. At Goddard, it was amazing to work with scientists and engineers who look inward to monitor our planet’s wellbeing and look outward to expand our knowledge of the cosmos. While at NASA, I worked on developing a vision statement for the agency’s libraries: to make knowledge of the universe universally known. 

What is your favorite part of your work? 

What I like best about my position is that it combines so many different roles simultaneously. Although the departments that I support are all interrelated academically, each department is unique in terms of research areas and information needs. For example, the Department of Astrophysical Sciences is leading a forthcoming NASA heliophysics mission. The Department of Physics has an impressive number of Nobel Prize laureates among its faculty. PPPL is a national laboratory under the Department of Energy, which strives to contain plasmas to produce clean, safe, abundant and affordable energy. At PPPL, I again find myself at the confluence of science and engineering. Not surprisingly, there is a range of work cultures within these departments. I encounter a wide variety of inquiries from all directions. Some are straightforward questions and others result in complex, long-term projects. 

As a student, I was especially interested in quantum, chaos, relativity, extragalactic astrophysics, and cosmology. During my time at NASA, I became fascinated by data science. I love working in the disciplines of physics, astrophysics, and plasma physics.It’s an honor to provide support to researchers on the frontiers of these beautiful fields. 

Do you have any suggestions or tips for people who are new to using the collections or resources at Lewis Library? 

I think the best advice I can give is that STEM librarians are here for you, to guide you in your information journeys and throughout the research cycle. Please reach out, whichever way works best for you, whether you are a novice or advanced user. You can even schedule a consultation. A consultation might sound intimidating, but it’s just a one-on-one session that can be whatever you would like. You can come with any questions you might have, request an orientation, and/or get recommendations for databases and tools etc. It can also be an opportunity to simply discuss courses, projects, and research. 

At Lewis Library, I would highly recommend checking out the nearby PUL Makerspace. In my opinion, it is the highlight of any visit here. I love when information resources, tools, devices, and machines - which are often off limits due to cost and/or size - are made accessible and democratized. I 3D printed a model of NASA’s Europa Clipper spacecraft that launched last autumn and I also printed a large-scale tardigrade (water bear). There are other makerspaces on campus including StudioLab and the Keller Center Makerspace, which are both excellent resources. 

I think it’s worthwhile to visit all the libraries at Princeton University Library, even if it is not directly in your discipline. Firestone and the branch libraries each have their own charm. Special Collections and the archives are also definitely worth a visit. Although the librarians and collections at Lewis are STEM, the library space is open to people of all disciplines. 

What are your goals for your first year at Princeton? 

My primary goal for my first year is to be more immersed in my departments, so I can anticipate and proactively meet their diverse information needs. Relatedly, I am working on creating departmental dashboards. In addition to data visualizations pertaining to that department’s subscriptions, the dashboard will contain many data visualizations for departmental statistics, both related to academics and research. It will provide general data visualization for the discipline at large. 

I am interested in experimenting with emerging technologies. I would like to explore generative AI in the context of search and discovery, as well as virtual and augmented reality for outreach purposes and alternative reading experiences. I am also working with colleagues on research involving scientific impact analyses of spacecraft fleets, starting with NASA’s universe (astrophysics) fleet.