The Information School’s inaugural distinguished practitioner in residence, Susan Hildreth, shared her thoughts on librarianship, education and her experience at the iSchool in a Q&A in the March 2018 edition of Library Journal.

Hildreth is the first person to take the professor of practice position, funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Its grant funds the position for 10 years and allows the iSchool to bring in up to five leaders in the librarianship field for two-year terms at the UW. The professors of practice bring a fresh perspective from the library world to the academic one.

Hildreth serves as treasurer of the American Library Association and previously was the director of the Institute of Museum and Library Services and a former city librarian in Seattle and San Francisco and state librarian of California. In the Q&A, she shared how some of her experience translates to the classroom and what she thinks are the top skills librarians need.

“What these employers and librarians who have been in the field for a while say is, we want people coming out of these programs who can deal with any situation and deal with it effectively,” she said. “Information about a certain specialization is not as critical as the ability to work with people, work in teams, identify best ways to communicate. And emotional intelligence is not always an easy thing to teach. It’s more about identifying it and talking about approaches.”

Read the full Q&A with Hildreth at the Library Journal website.