Faculty Voices: Jordan Ruud

Written By: Ian Silvester

“People think of libraries as being books. Libraries are people. If the library burned down, but there were still librarians, you would still have a library.”
 
At the University of Arkansas – Fort Smith, tucked back in the northeast corner on the first floor of the Boreham Library, the occupant of office 121 is one of those librarians making sure there will always be a library.
 
Jordan Ruud is the collection development librarian for UAFS and oversees what collections of books, eBooks, journals, art, and reference guides are available to students, faculty, and staff. And it’s a passion he’s had for more than a decade.
 
“In high school, I worked in libraries, and I really liked that,” he explained. “It was an environment that fueled me most; I was intrigued by libraries.”
 
The Centennial, Colorado, native found himself moving east for college, where he attended the University of Tulsa, graduated with a bachelor’s degree in English in 2007, and worked for that library.
 
He was partly drawn to Tulsa by scholarships but, most notably, for the university’s unique collection of James Joyce works. “At the time, I was a big James Joyce fan, still am, and I was like, ‘Oh, that’s an interesting thing to have this big James Joyce archive right in the middle of the country.’ I’m not a big archive person, but at the same time, it was cool to be somewhere that has special collections.”
 
As Ruud began to sort out his future as a librarian, he earned his first master’s degree in English from the University of Tulsa in 2009 before moving to Illinois. He earned his second master’s degree from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign in Library and Information Science in 2012. Having familiarity with the area from his time in Tulsa, Ruud applied at UAFS, clicking with the “vibes of this being a place that truly wants to help students succeed.”
 
In July, Ruud will celebrate 11 years with the university.
 
During Ruud’s time at UAFS, he has witnessed many changes to the Boreham Library – even being behind some of those changes. Most of which come by way of which collections he has brought to UAFS.
 
“This fiscal year, we picked up a huge JSTOR package; that’s a huge deal,” he said. “It’s a permanent acquisition, so that’s good. It’s one of the gems in our collection at this point.”
 
To put into context the significance of this, JSTOR is a digital library with access to more than 12 million journal articles, books, images, and sources, all at the fingertips of UAFS researchers. The expansion brought 3,000 titles and 15 journal collections to UAFS.
 
Ruud was also behind starting a DVD and games collection. “We’re trying to keep up with what people want, and we try to make our collections relevant and get stuff that people will check out.”
 
He believes the educational and leisure value “hit all fronts with (the) collections” he’s helped curate at UAFS. Outside of work, Ruud lives his life the same way, with academic and leisure activities.
 
The self-proclaimed bookworm starts every day by reading a few pages from each book in his stack ranging from a Joyce Carol Oates novel, a book about art, to a philosophy book. But his favorite is a volume of seven books by Marcel Proust titled “In Search of Lost Time” – detailing the author’s life and society.
 
When he isn’t learning from the pages of his books, Ruud loves watching movies. In fact, he goes to the theater once a week. He is excited to talk to other movie buffs about the upcoming films “Barbie” and “Oppenheimer.” And his love of movies has transformed into a podcast with other UAFS faculty.
 
Ruud, along with Drs. Nicki Stancil and Bret Bowers work on "The Midnight Symposium," “where (they) critically analyze and sometimes screen horror movies.” No episodes are currently live, but he says the team has several recorded and is excited to share their podcast soon.
 
But his busy life doesn’t stop there.
 
Ruud is the president of the River Valley Equality Center, a nonprofit working toward LGBTQ equality. Plus, he is editing a book about censoring LGBTQ materials in programming and libraries.
 
“It’s really important work,” Ruud said. “If I can play my part in combating censorship, that will have been one of my proudest accomplishments.”
 
Whether it’s his passion for helping others, sharing his love of literature and film, or standing up for what he believes in, Ruud’s door to Boreham Library office 121 is open to making a difference in someone’s day.

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