This story is from the Fall/Winter 2024-25 issue of Explore, UC San Diego Library’s signature publication published for a broad readership of patrons and supporters both on and off campus.
Meet Rob Hernandez and Amy Work. As the Customer Experience Supervisor and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) Librarian, both Library employees support critical aspects of student readiness. From the moment users walk through our doors, Rob and Amy are ready to help them succeed.
Rob Hernandez (he/him) | Customer Experience Supervisor
Tell us about your role and what excites you most about your work.
As a member of the customer experience (CX) team — part of the Spaces, Lending and Access program — I assist all Library users by providing information about the campus, the Library and its collections. The CX team also assists users with Library equipment including computers, scanners, audiovisual equipment and printing. As a manager, I love mentoring and coaching my team while fostering a positive work culture and making a positive impact for all users in our Library.
How does your team support student success and readiness?
As the Library’s first point of contact with users, it is essential that every interaction leaves them feeling welcomed and supported. Our team wants to ensure that students have all of the resources and information they need to navigate the Library. We are not just an “information desk” anymore. We are a team that engages and empowers our users while assisting in their academic journey.
How do you help students achieve their goals in academic success?
Guiding students to the appropriate resources is key to fostering academic success. The CX team and I talk with students to understand their needs and identify which resources will be most helpful to them. We discuss a myriad of topics, including goal planning, preparing for finals, seeking research assistance from reference librarians and reserving study rooms. Many students are unaware of all of the resources the Library offers until we have these conversations.
Tell us about a specific project you are currently working on. What is your role and how will the outcome support student success?
I have been leading an exciting new project with the CX team. We recently launched portable battery power banks through mediated checkout. These portable banks have five different charging ports, including wireless charging, which allows our students more charging options for their portable devices while studying inside the Library.
What are you most proud of in your work at the Library?
I take pride in bringing my CX colleagues together as a cohesive team. I feel a strong responsibility to foster positive energy and serve as a genuine leader while driving the results we need to be great! Nothing thrills me more than watching our team members succeed and grow in their roles. I also love making a difference for our Library users and helping them find the solutions they need.
Contact Rob: rah007@ucsd.edu
Amy Work (she/her) | Geographic Information Systems (GIS) Librarian
Tell us about your role and what excites you most about your work.
I am a geographer by training and previously worked for geospatial education nonprofit organizations. Working at the Library in the Scholarship Tools and Methods program allows me to make a broad impact by helping users across campus with their geospatial, or locationbased research questions. GIS can be valuable in almost every discipline. I enjoy helping users apply GIS to their research questions and working with them to overcome technical hurdles. Some of the recent research I have supported include using satellite imagery to detect avocado root rot, bathymetry for deep ocean exploration, the creation of cultural indices of Taipei neighborhoods, border relations, and health-related questions, such as examining HIV stigma in Uganda.
How do you support students’ academic success?
I support students and researchers with their geospatial questions. This includes providing consultations to find geospatial data, which is data with a location attribute, or troubleshooting technical and conceptual problems using a variety of GIS software platforms. My work also supports administrative and academic departments across the campus including Scripps Institution of Oceanography, Urban Studies and Planning, Archaeology, Health, History, Communication and others. Tell us about a specific project you are currently working on.
What is your role and how will the outcome support student success?
One project I am excited about is the creation of a geospatial data discovery platform, which is still in development. Our Library has thousands of datasets that students and researchers can use, however, all of that data is currently located on a network drive that is only accessible from within the Data & GIS Lab that I co-manage at Geisel Library. In collaboration with UC Santa Barbara (UCSB), we are developing a geospatial data discovery platform that will make discovery of our geospatial data holdings accessible by anyone, anywhere. The collaboration with UCSB means we can combine our development resources and build something together that can be customized for each campus.
What is one thing about your role that may surprise us?
In addition to directly supporting user research, I collaborate across the Library to build and provide geospatial infrastructure, such as the geospatial data discovery platform. Our other infrastructure projects support geocoding — mapping hundreds of thousands of addresses — or enabling mapping and visualization of data hosted in researcher’s standalone databases. To support the various elements of my work, I have sought professional development opportunities: I obtained my Agile Certified Scrum Product Owner certification and Lean Six Sigma White and Yellow Belts.
What are you most proud of in your work at the Library?
I am proud to see the results of students, researchers and faculty when they grasp the value of GIS in their research or teaching. I really enjoy getting to see the full picture of someone’s research. In my role, I often work on only a section of the project. When I see the completed project, I am always in awe of the talented individuals throughout our campus community.
Is there anything else you would like to share about your work at the Library?
I am a founding member of the UC GIS Leadership Committee which is composed of geospatial professionals across the UC system. The Committee established UC GIS Week, a three-day cross-campus virtual event celebrated every November to highlight geospatial work happening on the UC campuses from both academic and administrative sides.
Contact Amy: awork@ucsd.edu