Special Collections and Archives has the fortune of having wonderful and dedicated volunteers who steadfastly and meaningfully contribute to the department. One of our more recent volunteers is a librarian named Tom Schmidt. Tom has worked over 10 years in public and museum libraries in Florida, New Mexico, and most recently, the Flagstaff City-Coconino County Library and the Museum of Northern Arizona. He also enjoys history (particularly Southwest). He received his master’s degree in history from the University of San Diego (go Toreros)  and later a master’s degree in library and information science from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (go Fighting Illini). Despite living all over the country, he considers himself a Southwest native.  Tom is volunteering in the department by helping us with our monograph collection.

Like so many of us, Tom loves reading and history. He combined these two passions and is now making selections from our monograph collection and reviewing those books on his blog Reader’s Advice! He is very excited at reviewing books from the Special Collections & Archives and wants to focus on the different peoples of the Southwest/Colorado Plateau and their interactions with each other and the natural environment, and how history affects the future of the region.

Stay tuned for weekly book reviews from Tom, and if you see him in the library or around town, please say hello!