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Q&A with Steven Adams, Librarian for Graduate and Postdoctoral Initiatives

January 5, 2024

Northwestern Libraries' (NUL) holdings include extensive backfiles of newspapers and periodicals, scientific documents, medieval manuscripts, and the full text of every book, pamphlet, or broadside published in the United States between 1639 and 1829. 

Steven Adams is the librarian for graduate and postdoctoral initiatives in the NUL Academic Engagement department and focuses on the research needs of graduate students and postdocs on the Evanston campus. Read below to learn more about Steven and University Libraries.

Can you describe your role within University Libraries?

As the librarian for graduate and postdoctoral initiatives in the NUL Academic Engagement department, I focus on the research needs of graduate students and postdocs on the Evanston campus, and on sparking curiosity about the resources we offer. I design and coordinate orientation and learning experiences for both audiences, collaborate with campus partners on programming, and act as the library’s liaison to The Graduate School. I am also the subject librarian for Psychology, Communication Sciences and Disorders, and Cognitive Science, and I oversee two service points: the Main Library Information Commons and the Art Library. I enjoy working with graduate students to broaden their sense of what sources exist for their research and how to discover them.

Can you tell us what inspired your decision to engage in this work?

While working in the library as an undergraduate, I helped a student who was taking an environmental science class I had completed the year before. The librarians on duty that day did not have a science background, so they sent the student to me. I shared resources related to the assignment, showed him this new thing called JSTOR (yes, long ago), and sent him to the section of the library he needed to explore (GE40-45, Environmental Philosophy). At the end of this exchange, he said “Thanks!!! You helped me better than the librarian did!!” This was a eureka moment for me, and when I talked to the librarians about it, they got excited and encouraged me to explore the field. They said my science background would be in high demand in librarianship.

I later received a fellowship for graduate school in library science, became a librarian in the same library where I was a student worker, and went on to become a science librarian at Princeton University and Northwestern University. My exchange with that student was truly life-changing and opened up possibilities I had not previously considered.

What resource(s) can you and your office provide for graduate students?

Our service and resource offerings are vast, but here is a list of three things that I would prioritize for graduate students:

  1. Research consultations can be scheduled with subject librarians and our experts in GIS, archives, research data management, digital humanities, copyright, bibliographic management, our new Evidence Synthesis Support Service, and other specialties. For an in-depth research consultation, complete an online Appointment Request Form or contact a Subject Librarian. Whether you are in coursework, lab work, fieldwork, or writing your dissertation, this is an essential step in establishing your research workflow and discovering the literature you need to engage.
  2. Explore our research guides and find the ones you need for your research. Here are my favorite databases for literature searching:
    1. Humanities: MLA International Bibliography, Black Studies Center
    2. Social Sciences: PAIS Index, PsycInfo, Sage Research Methods
    3. Engineering: Engineering Village, Applied Science & Technology Abstracts, IEEE Standards
    4. Sciences and Mathematics: Scopus, MathSciNet
    5. Multidisciplinary: Oxford Bibliographies, Periodicals Archive Online, Web of Science
  3. Use our ILL and requesting services whenever you need to.
How can graduate students most easily contact and/or make an appointment with you?

Feel free to reach out to me directly at smadams@northwestern.edu.

What’s one fun fact you can share about yourself?

I was invited to the White House during the Clinton administration to receive an award for student activism work as a member of a group called Black Men for the Eradication of Sexism. We primarily did work on ourselves to address a form of oppression that grants men unearned advantages, and our domestic violence prevention work attracted national attention. President Clinton was very tall and very kind.

Categories: Around Campus, Broad Interest