An "Overdue" Introduction

Hi CNU Library Users,

My name is Francis Francisco, and I am the librarian at the Rancho Cordova campus of CNU! I wanted my first blog post to be an opportunity to introduce myself to those of you who haven’t yet gotten a chance to meet me. I’m originally from Canada, specifically Vancouver, British Columbia, but I grew up for most of my life in San Francisco, California. And yes, putting two and two together, that would make me "Francis Francisco from San Francisco." Pleasure.

My experience working as a library professional started as early as my undergraduate years, when I worked as a student library employee for UC Davis’s libraries. There, I earned my BA in Film Studies with dreams to move to Southern California and work in film production. Spoiler alert: it did not work out. But that’s ok! Be that it may, I realized my love for libraries has always been my North Star. I fell in love with libraries, not just because of their reliable wealth of information available to us, but for their unwavering way of fostering community for any individual who steps into its spaces. I believe it was Ron Weasley from the Harry Potter series, who said, “When in doubt, go to the library.” There’s truth to that statement. For me, libraries have always provided me with the support that I needed in various points of my life. I wanted to “give back” in a way. Ultimately, my devotion to this cause led me to a career working for academic libraries while earning my MLIS at San Jose State University in 2024.

Today, now here at CNU Library, I intend to instruct information literacy and research-finding skills, which I am most passionate about in librarianship. My work is driven by the current information environment that we live in. I aim to lead instruction with the intent of teaching users how to recognize good information from bad information, especially when combatting misinformation/disinformation, as so much of it is littering our lives, affecting not only in how we live it, but our relationships with one another. Information through AI use is another topic that fascinates me. I believe there is enormous potential for it as a teaching tool, however, like many new concepts, it still needs further refinement and understanding.

My goal here at CNU is to contribute my knowledge, expertise, and ideas, with the hope that I can be of some use to our users and their academic pursuits. Librarianship requires continuous learning and thoughtfulness as the field is always evolving due to technological changes in how information is communicated, as well as the changes in information behaviors from users themselves.

-Francis