Hello – my name is Karen Pillon and this is my Leddy Library journey.

I started working as a librarian at the University of Windsor in 1999.  Passionate about students and the services that can help them grow and learn, I’ve always had an ear and heart for those who needed a little more time, a little more patience and a little more confidence to achieve their best self! To this end, I have initiated many recruitment and retention activities, namely the first high school program at Leddy called the “Early Bird Research program”, Research Office hours for students or “ROH’s”, collaborated with colleagues on the idea of mindfulness rooms, collaborated with Russell Nadhee for the Collaboratory design that you see today, promoted the strength of co-op students to design the “English Conversation Group” and remember to volunteer my time to mentor those who are up and coming through the Women’s Enterprise Skills Training (WEST) program. I have proudly been a part of countless non-profit organizations, looking to assist in my community including the United Way, YMCA, WEST to name a few. I have also designed a successful information literacy program based on Ontario’s play based pedagogy which won me the OCUL’s Academic Librarianship award in 2017.

As passionate about student success as I could be, I also knew that student success was dependent on staff success. As Head of the Access Services department from 2008 - 2017, I studied how organizational change impacts libraries and organizations of all different types to create impactful student service. I positively worked with my own staff to create a service oriented model (based on Kohlberg’s decision based model) that continues to be used and built upon today.  I have worked with other Universities looking to make these changes including the University of Ottawa’s Morisset Library, University of Brock Libraries, University of British Columbia - Okanagan Library, and the Lakehead University Library. I have also worked with non-profit organizations and facilitated and created leadership programs to mentor leaders through organizational change including my colleagues at WEST.

Now, as an Associate University Librarian, I look to make changes across the University, assisting with Employment Equity, Accessibility, and Program Development (looking at indigenizing the curriculum) along with facing EDI issues head on. Most importantly, I hope to remain a responsive and helpful leader no matter which role I hold – whether it be in my community, the Leddy Library and across the University. I like to think of myself as a community builder – one that reminds us over and over that relationships matter, understanding and empathy go a long way and that above all – each one of us has a gift to give – we just have to help each other to figure it out one step at a time. Go Leddy! Go Lancers! Go Love!