Guest host Natalia Estrada chats with Liladhar Pendse, librarian for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies and the Caribbean and Latin American Studies at the University of California-Berkeley, about the concept of Area Studies, his work archiving Afghanistan’s digital and cultural content after the US withdrawal, the challenges of archiving war-torn areas such as Ukraine, and his advice for new librarians looking to enter his field.

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Liladhar R. Pendse is a librarian for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies and the Caribbean and Latin American Studies at the University of California-Berkeley. He has been with the University of California Library system since 2002 and possesses a wide range of expertise in Area and International Studies within academic libraries. Liladhar tries to educate himself through collaboration with his colleagues and continuing education opportunities. Liladhar considers librarianship to be his vocation and lacks an on-and-off switch when it comes to meeting user needs.

Natalia Estrada (she/they) is the Digital Scholarship Librarian at SUNY Buffalo. She’s worked in various academic library staff positions for more than 15 years and has focused her research on organizational hierarchy in the academic library. She’s also the host of the podcast Digital Explorer, the podcast about digital scholarship and our relationship with computers and the internet. Born and raised in the LA area, Natalia is interested in Legos, arts and crafts, weightlifting, the intersection of neurodiversity and Latinx identity, and chaotic energy.

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Syndetics Unbound, from ProQuest and LibraryThing.Today’s show is brought to you by Syndetics Unbound, from ProQuest and LibraryThing. Syndetics Unbound helps public and academic libraries enrich their catalogs and discovery systems with high-interest elements, including reader’s advisory, cover images, summaries, author profiles, similar books, reviews, and more. Syndetics Unbound encourages serendipitous discovery and higher collection usage, and was awarded Platinum distinction in the LibraryWorks 2021 Modern Library Awards. To learn more about Syndetics Unbound, visit Syndetics.com. While there, be sure to visit the Syndetics Unbound Blog for news and analysis, including a break-down of libraries’ top titles and other stories of interest to the library community.

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