Katie Sparks is the new electronic and continuing resources (ECR) binding specialist in Emory Libraries. In addition to her Emory work, she is a visitors’ service coordinator at the Center for Puppetry Arts in midtown Atlanta. Before coming to Emory, she was the head of the Laboratory and Research Academy at the American Institute of Monterrey in Santa Catarina, Mexico. She also spent ten years as a grad student and as the assistant to the director of the Biodiversity Institute and Natural History Museum at the University of Kansas.
Born in Terre Haute, IN, Katie travelled all over the world with her family, growing up in Houston, TX, Moscow, and Finlay, OH. Her father worked for an oil company and “we went all the places that the military goes.” Katie has a bachelor’s in biology from Denison University in Ohio, and master’s degrees in ecology and evolutionary biology and museum studies from the University of Kansas.
For fun, Katie reads and spends time outside. She describes herself as somewhat fluent in Spanish and also dabbles with Russian, although she feels rusty the further away from her Moscow days she gets. She also loves craft projects and is a foodie, exploring the cuisine of Atlanta.
“I love academic libraries and the feeling of this library is so wonderful,” says Katie. “Everyone has been so welcoming and I was aware of this library’s great reputation as a workplace. My job is a great combination of brain work and physical work.”
You can reach her at kathryn [dot] sparks [at] emory [dot] edu.
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