Introducing…Teresa Miguel-Stearns as the November FCIL Librarian of the Month

1.  Where did you grow up?

St. Louis, Missouri

2.  Why did you select law librarianship as a career?

After 10 years as a public defender, I decided I wanted to try something different. A friend turned me on to librarianship and I attended the University of Arizona. I was fortunate to be part of Knowledge River, which convinced me librarianship was a good fit for my skills and interests. I was also lucky to have Mike Chiorazzi as a professor. His classes and mentoring solidified my desire to enter law librarianship specifically.

3.  When did you develop an interest in foreign, comparative, and international law?

During Mike’s Law Library Management class, he had Francisco Avalos guest-lecture in the class. Francisco discussed his role in building their Mexican collection and making it available to researchers. I was hooked! When I got to Yale, I immediately gravitated toward Dan Wade and our F/I collection. Before long I took over collection development responsibilities for Iberia and Latin America and then became a specialist in F/I reference. I developed an F/I legal research class, and a class focusing on Latin America, and I connected with our F/I faculty. Although I now do more administrative work, I’ve been able to hang on to the collection development piece, and still do a small amount of reference pertaining to Latin America and Iberia.

4.  Who is your current employer? How long have you worked there?

Lillian Goldman Law Library, Yale Law School.  Since August 2005 (9+ years).

5.  Do you speak any foreign languages?

I am fluent in Spanish. I can speak a tiny bit of Italian and German, both of which I studied for a period of time. I’m most proud of the 10 words of Turkish I picked up at IALL in 2009.

6.  What is your most significant professional achievement?

Certainly earning the trust of my colleagues as I progressed to become the Deputy Director here at the Lillian Goldman Law Library. I have received tremendous support from colleagues such as Dan Wade, Fred Shapiro, Femi Cadmus, John Nann, Scott Matheson, and of course Blair Kauffman, our Director. Also, being elected to chair the FCIL-SIS is very special to me.

 7.  What is your biggest food weakness?

Just one? Pizza, chocolate, and my husband’s shrimp-n-grits. Roll Tide!

 8.  What song makes you want to get up and sing/dance?

Dancing Queen, Abba. For sure. My older sister and I used to argue about who was THE dancing queen.

 9.  What ability or skill do you most wish you had (that you don’t have already)?

Fluency in German and about a dozen other languages.

10.  Aside from the basic necessities, what is one thing you could not go a day without?

My morning tea.

11.  Anything else you would like to share with us?

I feel incredibly fortunate to have landed a second career in law librarianship for many reasons, including the opportunity to work with brilliant, diverse, and energetic people in the FCIL-SIS. My FCIL colleagues have for years been an integral part of my day-to-day work and life; for this I am extremely grateful.