Katharine Buckley

Katharine Buckley joined VCU Libraries as Special Collections and Archives (SCA) Teaching and Learning Librarian in January, 2023.

As SCA Teaching and Learning Librarian, Buckley leads the department’s instruction program and works to expand the program on both campuses. She oversees a dedicated instruction space at James Branch Cabell Library. Providing instruction tied to a range of primary source materials, Buckley works with faculty to design, teach and assess instruction sessions, workshops and programs that use primary source resources including artists’ books, comic arts materials, manuscript collections and rare books. Additionally, Buckley collaborates with department colleagues to develop a framework for instruction services and outreach that includes workflows, guidelines and pedagogical values/uses of special collections and archives.  

Buckley recently completed graduate study at the University of Alabama–Tuscaloosa with dual degrees: a Master’s in Library and Information Studies degree and a Master of Fine Arts in Book Arts. She also received the Bachelor of Arts degree in studio art from the University of Alabama. Before returning to academia to pursue her master’s degrees, Buckley spent one year as an AmeriCorps volunteer and four years teaching high school in Detroit public and charter schools. During the time that she was teaching, she also served as curriculum writer and instructional designer. 

Upon her return to graduate school, Buckley worked as a teaching assistant for letterpress printing, an intern for the Invisible Histories Project with the Birmingham Public Library Archives, and as a graduate assistant in the university’s Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. 

Through Contoura Press, Buckley has published two artist’s books, Why the South Demands Corrected Textbooks and T.W.K. Monthly.  

M.F.A., book arts, The University of Alabama-Tuscaloosa, 2022 

M.L.I.S, library and information studies, The University of Alabama-Tuscaloosa, 2022

B.A., studio art, The University of Alabama-Tuscaloosa, 2015