Meet the Librarian Who is Boosting Information Literacy at CNM
Samantha is one of many Library Specialists at CNM working to help all of our students succeed.

Meet the Librarian Who is Boosting Information Literacy at CNM

Samantha Legrand works at the Jeannette Stromberg Library where she has played a key role in implementing the new ‘Embedded Librarians Program.’
May 08, 2019

Library Specialist Samantha Legrand is relatively new to the Land of Enchantment and to CNM. She and her husband moved here in 2016 after he got a job as an engineer at Sandia National Laboratories.

Samantha knew she wanted to help people seek knowledge and access reliable resources, but she was unsure of what field to enter.

“After I finished my undergrad, I was contemplating going into social work or into education,” she says. “But ultimately, I ended up going to library school because it seemed like the perfect intersection of those two fields.”

Samantha graduated from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champagne with a Master of Science in Library and Information Science, and is now helping CNM students and faculty navigate through the sea of information available within our library systems.

“Being a librarian opens a lot of different opportunities to help people,” she says. “It’s a profession that’s centered on serving people and helping them to have a better life no matter where they’re coming from.”

Here at CNM, Samantha has been charged with organizing and executing the new Embedded Librarian Program that allows librarians to attend classes to provide information literacy support to students and faculty.

“It’s a new approach to teaching information literacy,” Samantha says. “We are there to help teach students how to navigate the hugely overwhelming world of information and how to properly vet reliable sources.”

Samantha says that the Embedded Librarian Program has allowed her to become an ambassador for the library while building relationships with faculty members. She says that in order to better serve our community, librarians need to talk to students and faculty in the classrooms. The program gives librarians a first-hand look at what our students and faculty need to be successful at CNM.

“I get to see how hard they (faculty) work and how much they truly care about the students,” she says. “And that really informs, now, what we do here because our end goal is to be a stronger support system for faculty and students.

Samantha_lead.jpg

In addition to leading the Embedded Librarian Program, Samantha teaches information literacy workshops to different CNM classes. She says it’s important, now more than ever, to be able to sift through information and pull the most reliable and fact-based sources to use for academic purposes.

“There’s so much information out there and it can be intimidating,” she says. “My hope is to show students and faculty that there is a process to narrowing down information and choosing that right information to cite.”

Samantha’s experience working at CNM has proven to be a unique one. She says that being able to interact with the CNM community has fueled her passion for her job.

“A lot of times librarians work more behind the scenes, but here, getting to teach workshops and be a part of classes, it helps me remember why we do the things we do,” Samantha says. “Seeing students being comfortable asking us for help and then succeeding is probably my favorite part about working here.”

For more information on the Embedded Librarians Program contact Samantha Legrand.  

Learn more about CNM Libraries.