On June 28, 2026, I presented the poster The University of Miami Rome Library: A Transatlantic Model for Collaborative Collection Development and Access at the ALA Annual Conference & Exhibition in Chicago.
This project is particularly interesting to me because it shows how a relatively small library can play an important role in our students' academic experience. Each semester, the University of Miami Rome Library supports approximately 35 architecture students studying in Rome, providing access to a collection selected to support their coursework and their experience in the city.
The poster highlights the collaboration behind the library and how different units at the University of Miami work together, both in Miami and Rome, to develop and manage the collection and make its resources accessible to students.
I really enjoyed presenting this project at ALA Annual and discussing it with colleagues from other libraries. It brings together several areas of librarianship that I am particularly interested in—cataloging, collection development, and international librarianship. More importantly, it shows how the work we do at the library in Miami can directly support our students while they study across the Atlantic.
