MLIS Alum Uses Knowledge and Passion to Improve Information Access for Future Queer and Trans People
During their tenure, Hagelin managed the LGBT Equity Library and worked on digital collections and digital collection, which sparked their interest in librarianship.
Karina Hagelin, preferred pronouns: they; them; their, studied American Studies at University of Maryland, where they received their Bachelor of Arts. During their tenure, Hagelin managed the LGBT Equity Library and worked on digital collections and digital collection, which sparked their interest in librarianship. Hagelin later pursued their Master’s in Library and Information Science at the UMD iSchool, where they digitized special collections, cataloged images, and created metadata. Hagelin’s passion for metadata grew and they took their knowledge, skills, and passion to Cornell University Library.
Hagelin is disabled, transgender, and queer and believes that it is important for librarians and archivists in those positions to be well-represented. At CUL, Hagelin is a diversity fellow and assistant archivist where they do a great amount of processing and creating metadata for the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force collection.
“The best part of my job is processing and working with collection of other queer people,” Hagelin said. “I’m preserving content for future queer and trans people to see that they have a history, and that people before them did really cool stuff here.”
As a diversity fellow and assistant archivist, Hagelin is most proud of, “sharing my story as a survivor and helping others heal from what happened to them.”