Shay Beezley
Assistant Director Metadata & Cataloging
About
Shay Beezley is the assistant director of Metadata and Cataloging at Chambers Library where she leads a team of six full-time employees and up to four student employees in providing accurate, effective and timely access to library resources. Metadata and Cataloging is dedicated to the library’s mission of connecting the Central community to dynamic resources that support transformative learning by cultivating a collaborative environment that supports thoughtful and conscientious consideration of bibliographic description, subject analysis and emerging methods of metadata application.
She participates in the Library Digital Initiatives Working Group whose focus is on developing and promoting the library's digital collections. Her metadata expertise helps guide the content management of resources the library makes accessible through SHAREOK, a joint institutional repository between UCO, the University of Oklahoma and Oklahoma State University.
As a professional librarian, she also leads collection development efforts for the Department of English and the Department of Modern Languages. Her primary focus in collection development for these areas is increasing historically underrepresented and marginalized voices in the library's collections.
Outside of the library, she enjoys practicing her amateur photography skills, dabbling in various crafts from embroidery to zine-making, visiting museums (especially art museums and small, niche museums) and checking off "Places Visited" on Atlas Obscura.
Education and Certifications
M.S., Library Science, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 2011
B.A., English, magna cum laude, East Carolina University, 2009
Professional and Community Involvement
UCO Staff Senate
Academic Affairs Representative, 2019-23
Secretary/Treasurer, Staff Senate Executive Committee, 2022-23
Vice-Chair, Staff Welfare and Policy Committee, 2021-22
Staff Senate Representative, University Mission, Vision and Values Task Force, Fall 2021
Member, Staff Welfare and Policy Committee, 2020-21
Staff Senate Representative, University Benefits Renewal, Summers 2020 and 2021
Member, Compensation Committee, 2019-20
Ex Libris Users of North America (ELUNA)
Program Committee Chair, 2016-Present
SHAREOK Partners Board
UCO Representative, 2019-Present
Oklahoma Library Association
University and College Division Chair / Executive Board Member, 2020-21
Honors and Awards
- Ruth Brown Memorial Award, 2023 - Inaugural Metadata Justice in Oklahoma Libraries & Archives Symposium
- UCO Office of Diversity and Inclusion Exceptional Woman Award, 2023 - Staff
- David Oberhelman Memorial Scholarship for OLA Gold Leadership Institute, 2023
Interests
- metadata justice
- inclusive language
- ethics in library cataloging and classification
- development and availability of professional development / continuing education opportunities
- access to special collections and regional resources
- history of libraries and library services in the American West
- promotion of SHAREOK, a joint institutional repository between Oklahoma universities with the goal of advancing Oklahoma scholarship, research, and institutional memory. Visit SHAREOK at https://shareok.org
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