“Some people just never want to leave the library,” says Matthew Connor Sullivan ’24PhD. “[When exploring the library stacks,] you encounter one source after another, which propels more questions and enables your research to go deeper. I find this whole process fascinating.”
Sullivan spent much time in libraries while studying religion and foreign languages. During his graduate studies at the University of Oxford, and later the Harvard Divinity School, he met immensely skilled librarians and realized that librarianship could be a viable and academically satisfying career option. Ultimately, he decided that becoming a librarian would allow him to inhabit the spaces he cherishes while providing intellectual stimulation.
Ever-Evolving Librarianship
Coinciding with his Master of Library and Information Science and subsequent Doctor of Library and Information Science programs at Simmons’ School of Library and Information Science (SLIS), Sullivan obtained valuable work experience at Harvard University’s Widener Library.
From 2013 to 2017, Sullivan worked as a Library Assistant in Technical Services, processing diverse materials that came into the Widener. Now, as a Librarian for Collection Development and Assessment at Harvard, he supports a number of subject and area librarians who collect materials from all over the world.
“In a typical week, I run various reports and put together some data analysis relating to collections and budgets, work on larger data and visualization projects [for instance, end-of-year planning and subscription reviews], and respond to reporting needs from colleagues,” Sullivan explains.
Recently, Sullivan gathered and analyzed data involving the Ivy Plus Libraries Confederation, which allows patrons from Ivy League schools to borrow library materials from other Ivy institutions. For this pilot project, Sullivan assessed how many copies of a given work could meet user demand among the institutions, in an effort to foster collaborative collecting.
Within the realm of collection assessment, Sullivan enjoys problem-solving and data analysis.
“I discovered early on that I liked thinking about work-related problems even more than doing the work itself. There were so many questions that could be answered, at least in part, with data,” he says. “So, I found myself in the position of looking for relevant data and pushing for getting the kind of tools of analysis to answer these questions.”
Sullivan appreciates the ever-evolving nature of his professional role. “My job is somewhat undefined, and I have played a role in defining what it could be,” he says. “This may include the skillsets I already have or learning new ones [to support our collection].”
Addressing Misinformation with Interdisciplinary Scholarship
In addition to his roles at Harvard, Sullivan has published research in library and information science (LIS) journals on a regular basis. He emphasizes that “librarians come from so many fields and backgrounds, and there are so many interesting people, so it seems like the perfect context for doing interdisciplinary work.”
Generally construed, Sullivan’s scholarship aims to amplify the collaborative fabric of LIS and to champion “the great work that librarians are doing to promote information literacy and to fight misinformation.” His interdisciplinary approach to LIS, broadly construed, harkens back to his earlier studies in religion.
As someone who came from a conservative religious background and attended a Baptist-oriented college, pursuing his graduate studies at Oxford and Harvard constituted a “mind-blowing” intellectual experience for Sullivan. During those years, he gained new perspectives on the Bible, which in turn led to intellectual forays into Judaism, classics, history, and numerous foreign (including ancient) languages.
An important lesson that emerged from this training was the value of interdisciplinarity; in other words, Sullivan learned that examining a phenomenon from a single discipline is too insular. “I suppose that’s one reason why my academic work in LIS draws heavily on research outside the field … So many fields overlap with LIS and the work of libraries, and I don’t think we can do effective work without including them in our research.” Accordingly, Sullivan’s scholarship on mis/disinformation incorporates authoritative voices from the fields of media studies, communications, social psychology, and beyond.
As a SLIS doctoral student, Sullivan pursued his dissertation, “Habits and Heuristics: How Librarians Evaluate News Online,” which investigates the ways in which professional librarians assess political news content published on the internet.
“While librarians are convinced that they have an essential role to play in combatting misinformation … the existing information literary approaches and tools do not work well for every day (i.e., non-research-related) use,” he explains. This dissertation utilizes diverse methodologies and draws from three experimental studies that he conducted regarding librarians’ evaluation of relevant materials.
The “fake news” concerns of 2017 fueled Sullivan’s article, “Why Librarians Can’t Fight Fake News,” (published in the Journal of Librarianship, 2018). Addressing the issue that librarians are often the first line of defense against “fake news,” attempting to educate the public through media/information literacy guides, he noted that common media literacy tools were no longer effective in this new information landscape. Ultimately, Sullivan demonstrates how LIS can look to other fields to grapple with the issue of misinformation.
In a subsequent article, “Leveraging Library Trust to Combat Misinformation on Social Media,” (published in Library & Information Science Research in 2019), Sullivan adopted an empirical methodology, which derived inspiration from media studies and the social sciences. “Through an online experiment with controlled variables, I tested a common claim made in the context of misinformation: namely, that libraries have an essential role to play in combatting misinformation, given their trusted role among the public,” he explains. “I used common misconceptions about the influenza vaccine as a case study for gauging how misinformation affects its users.”
Ultimately, Sullivan hopes that his research will prompt LIS scholars to develop new methods that elevate librarians. “Instead of writing more abstract things, LIS research should demonstrate its value [through empirical testing and an overall more practical orientation] to support libraries, librarians, archives, and other educational institutions,” he suggests.
“Concerning misinformation, for instance,” Sullivan elaborates, “rather than compiling sets of skills that citizens should have to be news literate, LIS researchers should focus on identifying which skills are most essential or the best way to impart those skills.”
On this note, Sullivan is hopeful that Simmons’ newly formed Center for Information Literacy (CIL), funded by the Mellon Foundation, will be a laboratory of collaboration between scholars, practitioners, and the general populace.
Collaborative Mentors and Customizable Education at Simmons
At Simmons, Sullivan appreciated SLIS’s rich course offerings and the fact that he could continue to work locally. “Most of the librarians I met both at Harvard and at the historical institutes where I volunteered had connections to Simmons, and, living in New England, [Simmons SLIS] was the obvious choice,” he says.
Associate Professor Katherine Wisser was a formative influence on Sullivan. “In both my [master’s and doctoral] programs, I worked with Professor Wisser on library history, which is a topic I love. She also advised me for a long while.”
For his doctoral work and dissertation, Sullivan also worked closely with Professor and Associate SLIS Dean Laura Saunders. Once he started researching misinformation, “it became clear that our interests overlapped in many ways. Professor Saunders was incredibly supportive and helpful throughout all the latter stages of my doctoral work,” he recalls.
Moreover, Sullivan learned the value of collaboration from Saunders. “Dr. Saunders has an eye to other fields and is concerned with the practical implications of some of these information changes and how they actually impact how people are doing their work,” he notes.
During his SLIS master’s program, Sullivan used his coursework to develop professionally and open new career avenues. “Simmons is really good at letting their graduate students do independent study, tailoring their studies to what they want to do … SLIS lets you customize your education,” he says.
Graduate courses like “Evaluation of Information Services” (LIS 403), have proved to be especially relevant for Sullivan’s current role in collections assessment. He notes that “Collections Development and Management” (LIS 453) also provides crucial training for this type of librarianship.
An Eye to the Future
Addressing future generations of librarians, Sullivan advises them to remain aware of the challenges and opportunities that affect the field. “The (mis)information landscape is rapidly changing … [it’s wise to] focus on emerging tools, particularly generative AI [artificial intelligence], and how these will impact library work and our services to patrons.”
While many academics fear that AI will usher in rampant plagiarism, Sullivan also sees promise and potential. Current AI technology may supply answers, and in the development of deep research models in the near future may help users think through the processes of imbibing and evaluating information.
“In this sense, libraries may play a tremendous role in discerning, training, and monitoring these literacy tools,” thereby potentially assisting patrons in developing deeper thinking skills, Sullivan surmises. In this way, librarians could potentially use AI to increase literacy.
“Librarians relish these teaching moments, but they can be rare given time constraints,” he says. Emerging technologies may, therefore, assist librarians in their significant work.
In an era of information wars, Sullivan recognizes the essential role that librarians play in upholding the truth. “We cannot take [the pivotal work] that libraries and librarians do for granted.”