Photo courtesy of Franny Gaede

Next in our ‘Meet the CC Summit Presenter’ series meet, Franny Gaede, Director of Digital Scholarship Services at the University of Oregon Libraries. Franny provides leadership and support for digital scholarship, digital collections, digital preservation, scholarly communication, and library-led open access publishing. She earned her MSIS and BA in History at the University of Texas at Austin, and previously worked as the Scholarly Communication Librarian for Butler University. Franny’s professional interests include open access and social justice, digital scholarship project sustainability and preservation, and applications for digital scholarship work in research and teaching.

Based in?: Eugene, Oregon, United States

Summit Session: Open as a High Impact Practice: Centering Open Pedagogy and Public Scholarship

How did you get involved with Creative Commons?

I got involved with Creative Commons pretty much day one as a teaching librarian who was trying to keep students engaged in information and digital literacy instruction! As the designated “copyright person” on campus, I was so uninterested in policing people’s usage and measuring risk tolerance. I’m always much more excited to collaborate and co-create with my colleagues, and that’s what Creative Commons makes possible.

How many times have you been to CC Global Summit?

This is my first time attending.

In the future, what is something you would like to see at the CC Summit?

Continued opportunities to present, collaborate, and learn about open education and open scholarship.

Why are you an advocate for Open?

I am an advocate for Open because Open saves lives. It makes extraordinary works of art, creativity, music, drama, experiences available for all to experience and engage with in a variety of unknowable ways. It fulfills the promise of the Internet and of science, building connections and foundations.

“Open saves lives. It makes extraordinary works of art, creativity, music, drama, experiences available for all to experience and engage with in a variety of unknowable ways. It fulfills the promise of the Internet and of science, building connections and foundations.”

What is your proudest achievement?

Helping pass the University of Oregon’s first comprehensive open access policy.

What is the best part of what you do? What is the most difficult part of what you do?

The best part of what I do is getting to geek out with others about cool stuff! 

The most difficult part of what I do is maintaining a sense of self — the idea of “it’s not just what I do, but who I am” is hard to maintain in the long run and can lead to burnout. I don’t want that for myself or for others. A healthy balance is good.

What is your favorite GIF?

What tool/platform/app are you loving right now?

I am super into Polywork! (https://www.polywork.com) It’s a little bit like LinkedIn, but it recognizes that we’re multifaceted people whose work isn’t just their title or 9-5, but a whole bunch of different things. It lets me talk about and share the other stuff I’m into, like my calligraphy, gaming, and blogging.

What’s one new trend that you think the CC community should look out for?

Not a *new* trend, but I’d love to encourage the CC community to continue to look to GLAM institutions as collaborators, and for GLAM institutions to continue using CC licenses as much as they possibly can. (And to advocate for their institutions to do the same!)

What is the biggest setback you have experienced? How did you overcome it?

My institution has been going through a lot of change, pretty much since I got there! I manage it by not being precious about my ideas, sharing thoughts and feelings freely, operating transparently, and asking all the questions. 

If you could only leave people with one message from your summit presentation, what would it be?

This isn’t easy, but it’s learnable. We can do this.

What was the best career advice you ever received? What was the worst career advice you ever received?

Not just the best career advice, but life advice: “When someone shows you who they are, believe them.”

Worst career advice, from my brain as I’m about to leave for the day: “You don’t need that cardigan; it’s 95 degrees Fahrenheit outside.” (Yes, but it’s approximately 60 in the library.)

What would you like to say to Creative Commons on our 20th anniversary?

Congratulations and thank you. You’ve changed the world for the better.

What does ‘Better Sharing, Brighter Future’ mean to you?

We can do better, and we can do better still, together.

Join us at the 2021 CC Global Summit, which will take place virtually September 20-24. Register here >>