Member Spotlight - Jade Kastel
January 27, 2025
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This week's spotlight is on Jade Kastel. Jade is the director of library services at the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum and a member of the Illinois Association of College & Research Libraries Forum (IACRL) Diversity Committee.
We asked Jade to answer a few professional and amusing questions. Continue reading to find out more about Jade.
A little background on Jade:
Jade Kastel is the Director of Library Services at the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum and the 2023 Illinois Academic Librarian of the Year awarded by the Illinois Library Association. In 2023, Jade was appointed as the founding Diversity Officer for Western Illinois University Libraries.
She graduated with a B.M. and M.M. in saxophone performance, a Masters in Library and Information Science, and she completed a teaching assistantship in the Tirocinante program at the Conservatorio di Musica “Niccolò Piccinni” in Bari, Italy. In 2019, Jade was a fellow in the Institute of Jazz Studies Archival Fellowship at Rutgers University.
Since 2008, Jade has worked as a jazz musician in Milwaukee, Miami, and now in Illinois. Her performances have taken her to Bolivia, Brazil, Great Britain, Italy, Slovenia, and across the United States. Jade is pursuing a DMA in jazz performance with a minor in queer studies at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.
How did you get your start in libraries?
My first career spanned 9 years as a director of music and a jazz musician in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Then, when I moved to Miami, Florida, I was applying broadly for job positions and started as the Director of Library Services at Broward College. My librarian colleagues were wonderful mentors and encouraged me to consider an MLIS degree, as it would open doors for me in libraries. With my interest in music librarianship, I saw this as an avenue for a career in academia. I heeded my colleagues’ advice and started my MLIS fully online at the University of South Florida.
Sure enough, a librarian job opened at Johnson & Wales University (JWU) in North Miami and having the MLIS in progress was very positive when I applied. I was able to work as a business librarian at JWU while finishing my MLIS degree. During the pandemic, JWU closed their North Miami campus permanently, and I was fortunate to find a visiting position as a business librarian at Purdue University Fort Wayne. As universities started to post positions coming out of the pandemic, I moved to Macomb, Illinois to start as the music librarian at Western Illinois University. Nearly 3 years later, I saw the Director of Library Services position had opened at the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum (ALPLM).
Now at ALPLM, I lead a staff of 13 who are experts across our library departments of conservation, audiovisual, manuscripts, microfilm, newspapers, published, cataloging, reference, acquisitions, and the registrar. I am thrilled to have such great colleagues, a world-renowned collection, and a wonderful library to host researchers interested in Lincoln and Illinois history.
Best advice you've received since starting your career in libraries?
Get the MLIS! You can see from my answer above how the MLIS opened so many doors for me. Since librarianship is also a field where being a subject matter expert is desired, having a master’s or doctorate is also advantageous. I already had a Master’s of Music degree and 9 years of work experience, and pairing those with an MLIS helped me shift gears into the fast track to fine arts librarianship.
Any advice to newcomers working in libraries?
Besides the aforementioned "Get the MLIS!" which turned out to be indispensable advice, workplace traits like collegiality, helpfulness, and curiosity are boons that benefit one throughout their career. Libraries are the ultimate collaborator and a natural collaborative space. Public libraries serve all walks of people and any topic that piques their curiosity, enjoyment, or need. Academic libraries serve all degree programs and often partner with the writing lab and campus support systems like the tutoring center and student organizations to support students and faculty.
As a newcomer looking for library jobs, being able to speak to your teamwork experience, your interest in serving people, and your ability to adapt, be flexible, and a desire to be a lifelong learner are so important to gauge how you'll fit in as a colleague. Even in library positions like IT, e-resources, and cataloging, that are not as public facing, having a desire to help patrons is shown through making resources accessible, discoverable, and incorporating diversity, equity, and inclusion principles into the library catalog and website to make these spaces welcoming and easier for patrons to utilize.
Consider joining an ILA or CARLI committee. You learn so much, you meet experts in your field, you develop a core of mentors, and you also give back to the profession. If you are a newcomer and want to ask questions of someone who's had a variety of experiences in the field, I'd be happy to volunteer to field questions to fellow ILA colleagues, outside of my work hours, of course.
When and why did you become a member of ILA?
I'd have to look back to when exactly I joined ILA. I am in at least my second year serving on the Illinois Association of College and Research Libraries Forum (IACRL) Diversity Equity and Inclusion (DEI) Committee, but I feel like I joined ILA before my committee service started. I recall was able to join the Preservation Committee with the Consortium of Academic and Research Libraries in Illinois (CARLI) right after starting at WIU because one of my colleagues (thanks Bill Thompson) had kindly sent the information to me early and I applied for a CARLI Committee before my official WIU start day, as if my memory serves, that call for committee volunteers was in April and technically I started at WIU that first Monday in May.
I was fortunate that my Library Director at JWU, Nicole Covone, was such an advocate for regional library committee service, showing me the perks of organizations like ILA. I served on two Southeast Florida Library Information Network (SEFLIN) committees while at JWU and I valued what I learned each year on a committee, and how each committee taught me about another facet of librarianship.
Committee service and membership in organizations like ILA were so beneficial to me as an early career librarian that when I moved to Indiana, I joined the Indiana Library Federation’s Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, Justice, and Accessibility (DEIJA) Committee, and when I moved to Illinois, I joined two committees here. These committees immediately connected me with colleagues in Indiana and Illinois, which was invaluable, especially when moving to new states and navigating librarianship during the pandemic.
How has being a member of ILA helped you professionally?
The presentations at the ILA annual meetings in 2023 and 2024 were extremely helpful, especially the panels related to navigating bans and challenges of books, collections, and programming. I presented at an ILA Reaching Forward conference and I presented a poster with my ALPLM AV librarian colleagues, Kelsey Wise and Matthew Deihl, in Peoria this October titled, “That's Illinois?! Surprising People and Events in Illinois History Recorded in Primary Sources at the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum.” The IACRL Committee also had a poster at ILA 2024, and Jacqueline Zook, Jeremy McAninch, and I presented a poster titled, “High Impact, Low Stress: DEI Initiatives for the Busy Academic Librarian.”
Perhaps the biggest benefit and connection to ILA that boosted a spotlight on my professional career was winning the Illinois Academic Librarian of the Year award in 2023. I was excited because through that award, ILA also highlighted the support libraries provide in diversity, equity, inclusion, justice, accessibility, LGBTQ visibility, antiracism, and the ways libraries are key players and collaborators in the communities we serve.
What is your proudest professional achievement to date?
I appreciate that this question states “achievement to date,” as I see colleagues and library professionals breaking glass ceilings and making the profession proud on a daily basis. I’d like to acknowledge three of my closest mentors, Nicole Covone (FL), Torri Kellough (FL and NV), and Kathryn Harris (Springfield, Illinois!), who continue to be a support for me, and I see my achievements as an extension of their influence and a continuation of their own achievements and legacy in librarianship.
Winning the Illinois Academic Librarian of the Year award is definitely up there for me as a note of pride, and so is starting my position at the Director of Library Services at the ALPLM. But I do have to say, that I have encountered some of the best colleagues and mentors through librarianship, and to have this network of people and to be able to say “I’m with them!” is a point of great pride for me in my librarian career.
As I type this, I’m feeling a tap on the back of my shoulder. My doctoral degree in jazz performance with a minor in queer studies (with an anticipated graduation this spring 2025 from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign) would like a word to also be considered as a crowning professional achievement. I guess achievements are like musical performances, artworks, or workplaces. I hold many dear to my heart, each with a different reason and different people who enjoyed the celebrations and memories with me.
Hardcover, paperback, e-reader, audiobook, or all?
As a fully online MLIS student, eBooks and online access to academic journals really saved me in my degree, and it gave me insight into the benefits in accessibility that come with digital access. Then, as a music librarian, my creative and musical side is encouraging me to expand slightly in this answer to include fine arts streaming platforms and physical media to watch or listen to performances, and access to physical and digital music scores.
In fine arts librarianship, I was consistently encouraging fine arts students to watch and listen to music, theater, art, and fine art performances just as much as I was encouraging them to read about the fine arts. This was a long winded answer to say, yes to all, and then some.
Favorite authors?
Again, from the music librarian side, I also like to add composers (or how could I leave out fine artists and performance artists) in my list of recommendations.
- Tania León – Cuban American conductor and composer who won a Pulitzer Prize in Music for her composition Stride, she’s a Kennedy Center honoree, and the feature of Alejandro L. Madrid’s book Tania León's Stride: A Polyrhythmic Life.
- June Jordan – Jamaican American poet, playwright, and essayist whose phrase “We are the ones we have been waiting for,” has resonated with me for several years.
- Rose Betts – A singer and song writer who I recently have been belting along with in my car, and incidentally, her website is also very cool.
- The Bulgarian Women’s Choir – This is one of my all-time favorite performing groups. Treat your ears to this choir’s luscious harmonies.
- Pomplamoose – If the Paris Olympics has you hooked on the French language, let me recommend this musical duo and their version of “Les Champs-Elysées.” And any track with John Tegmeyer playing clarinet is guaranteed to be a surefire jam.
If you were stuck on a deserted island, what five books would you want with you to pass the time until being rescued?
Again, with this one, as a former music librarian, I like to do a mix of reading and listening/watching fine arts materials, which I guess would mean I’d also need to request solar panels and other technology to be conveniently stranded with me so I can actively enjoy the fine arts on said island.
- Poetry Book – If I am indeed stranded, I may need to let out some emotions. CA Conrad is a favorite poet of mine whose emotions I resonate with, and I love seeing CA perform in-person. I would cherish their poetry as a companion while I weather and ponder my pending rescue.
- Book – For nostalgia, I’d bring a book from the series The Three Investigators by Robert Arthur Jr. and Mary Virginia Carey. Still to this day, mysteries are one of my favorite genres when reading for fun.
- Vinyl Record – This is a hard one for me to pick just one. This past year, Taj Mahal’s Happy Just to Be Like I Am has been spinning relentlessly on my record player.
- TV Series – As someone who is doing a doctorate while working, I have often wished I could clone myself to juggle life. Although, after being in awe of Tatiana Maslany’s brilliance in Orphan Black, I’m appreciating that I am just Jade, because Jade-Helena or Jade-Alison Hendrix is slightly terrifying.
- Musical – For all my music theater students, yes, Hamilton was a strong consideration, but Wicked with two powerful female leads wins! And if I find myself stranded on a deserted island, I surmise it’s because “no good deed goes unpunished!”
Cat or Dog?
I love this question because I have a cat, a dog, and a TURTLE! But perhaps the most interesting fact, beyond my cat or dog preference, is that I found my late cat, Beaver, in the streets of Bari, Italy in 2006. I brought him back to the US and he lived with me for 14 years across Minnesota, Wisconsin, Ohio, and Florida.
Favorite film, podcast, or television show?
I binged the podcast Criminal as I was packing up and cleaning my Milwaukee house to get ready for my move to Florida. Knowing the audience of voracious reading perusing this Q&A, if you’re unfamiliar with Criminal, let me suggest Episode #49 “The Editor” as a foray into the podcast. Each episode is drastically different, with a unique theme, personalized artwork, and often a subversion of the connotations related to the word criminal.
One person you would like to meet, dead or alive why?
It’s so hard to pick just one. There are several people I’d love to meet, and on any given day, my list might change depending on which artists, musicians, athletes, authors, and creative, intriguing people I am researching at that given moment. If you’ll indulge me, I’ll show restraint and limit myself to just five people who have been on my mind throughout 2024.
- Nina Simone – This pianist, vocalist, and composer would likely be atop my list of favorite people to meet any day of the year. Nina is also someone I would 100% need to take with me to that deserted island, but since I knew I’d mention her here, I left space to share other favorites in my answer to that question. I’d love to talk music with Nina, but just to hear her perform live would be surreal.
- Vi Redd, Ernestine “Tiny” Davis, and Ruby Lucas are all featured in my doctoral paper and recital, and needless to say, I’ve been ruminating on their jazz prowess for years. All three are women of color and vanguards in jazz. Vi Redd was a saxophonist, vocalist, and educator who notably performed with the Count Basie Orchestra. Tiny Davis and Ruby Lucas were a couple who owned Tiny and Ruby’s Gay Spot, a jazz and LGBTQ club in Chicago. Tiny played trumpet and was a vocalist, and Ruby played drums, bass, and piano. I would have loved to play with these three women and to hear stories of their journey in jazz.
- Richard Hunt – This man recently took over my work life. ALPLM currently has an exhibit featuring Richard Hunt’s sculptures and a smattering of his books from his personal library collection. Working so closely with Hunt’s sculptures and seeing what he read and was influenced by has been inspirational. It would have been a treat to talk art and music with him.
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