Meet Elise Proulx
By Ellen Meltzer, Manager, Information Services; Photo: Craig Thompson, Web Producer
Elise Proulx is the new Outreach and Marketing Coordinator in the eScholarship Publishing Group of CDL. Her teammates in this group include Catherine Mitchell, Kirk Hastings, Martin Haye, Suzanne Lim, Lisa Schiff, and Matthew Winfield. Elise’s role is to inform faculty members, researchers, and others associated with the University of California that eScholarship publishing services exist and how authors, editors, and unit heads can benefit from them. Her aim is to raise the visibility of these services and increase their usage. Elise has already been visiting campuses consulting with subject specialist librarians and library staff, since the next phase of promoting these services will be performed with the aid of campus librarians. Coming soon: marketing collateral including notepads, t-shirts, bookmarks, and more. Another of Elise’s tasks is to ensure that the eScholarship website makes it clear to faculty that using these services is not as daunting as it now might seem.
Elise followed a tantalizing path to the CDL. She was a literary agent in SF and the executive director of San Francisco’s Litquake, a literary version of the city’s music, film, and cultural festivals, with “a mix of readings, panel discussions, themed events, and general literary mayhem. ” Her previous positions definitely involved substantial outreach to diverse audiences, a wonderful foundation for working with UC eScholarship users.
Elise is also tackling a library degree from San Jose State University, which she’ll wrap up in December. This summer she’s taking a copyright class through the University of Pittsburgh. Combined with her past experience with contracts and copyright as a literary agent, this course will provide her with additional chops for her current position. She is also pursuing an externship at San Francisco Public Library, working on marketing their “one city, one book” program (http://sfpl.org/news/ocob/onecity.htm).
Elise is knowledgeable about traditional publishing but she began looking at the field of publishing with increasing dismay. As web publishing began to flourish and the role of literary agents began changing drastically, she was ready for a change. She’s very excited to be moving into the world of digital publishing. Added to this is her love of the UC libraries: she’s a UCB grad and has a brother who’s a professor at UCSB interested in open access publishing.
Having arrived at CDL in January, Elise is still wrangling with the challenge of having offices in Oakland and knowing there are faculty, researchers, librarians at 10 campuses, plus UC laboratories out there to meet. It’s a daunting prospect to collaborate with them all. An additional challenge for Elise was making the transition from a home office (where the appropriate attire is yoga pants and clogs) to a more traditional office. Although not completely… when one of the members of the eScholarship Publishing Group, Martin Haye, commutes from home, he has a computer running in his CDL office with a webcam online. Colleagues regularly talk to him and even sit down to chat over lunch. What strikes Elise odd is that this now seems normal!
A recent positive experience for Elise arose in traveling to UC Merced just a few days before graduation and Michelle Obama’s visit there, with the feel of excitement on the campus. Elise admits to being thrilled to be at CDL, especially with the end in sight for her library degree. And we’re equally thrilled to have her on board.