A research breakthrough can begin with a question as simple as, “You’re the librarian, right?” For students and faculty in Germanic Languages and Literatures, expert library support is not confined to the library—it is available just down the hall.
That connection between books, people, and discovery captures the work of the librarian supporting the Department of Germanic Languages and Literatures (GLL), Mary Lawrence. Nearly three years into the role, Mary has become a familiar departmental presence: attending monthly meetings, holding regular office hours, and helping students and faculty navigate everything from elusive newspaper articles to complex interdisciplinary projects.
The office hours began with a simple realization: many useful conversations happen by chance. During early visits to the department’s Coffee and Cookies gatherings, a quick encounter near the mailboxes could turn into a question about a book, a class, or a research problem.
“People don’t think that they have a question,” Mary explained, “but then they come and check their mail, and they notice I’m there, and suddenly they do.”
Rather than turn a social gathering into a business meeting, Mary established a dedicated time to be present in the department. Some weeks bring several visitors; others are quiet. Yet visibility itself matters. Informal comments can spark ideas for coursework, library instruction, or new ways to connect classes with collections.
The office hours are particularly useful for brainstorming and solving focused problems. A student or faculty member might need help locating a specific book or accessing an article hidden behind a publisher’s paywall. The library licenses an enormous range of newspapers, magazines, and scholarly publications, but they are not always available through the publication’s own website. Finding them may require searching another database or platform—precisely the kind of obstacle a librarian can quickly help remove.
Longer research questions can lead to individual consultations. Those are among Mary’s favorite parts of the job.
“Every time is a new adventure,” she said. Although her academic background is in French and German literature, GLL projects often extend into history, politics, migration, culture, and other fields. “I love having those consultations where I get to hear what someone’s project is, and then help connect them with the resources where they can dig deeper.”
Mary’s path to Michigan brought together interests that once seemed separate. She first studied German as a high school senior while on an academic exchange to francophone Belgium and living with a host family in rural Luxembourg. Later came a semester in Berlin, undergraduate majors in French and German studies, and a Fulbright grant teaching English in Güstrow, Germany.
Librarianship also runs in the family: her father and one sister are librarians, while another sister is pursuing the profession. After earning a master’s degree in library science at the University of Illinois and completing an internship in conservation work at the Library of Congress, she discovered that liaison librarianship could unite languages, teaching, research, and collections.
That work stretches far beyond campus. At the Frankfurt Book Fair, Mary explored new publications and met with vendors who help shape U-M’s German-language collections. Such visits provide a perspective that catalogs alone cannot: hundreds of publishers gathered together, offering a vivid view of the contemporary publishing landscape. (See Mary’s write-up of the experience here).
Closer to home, an especially exciting project is taking shape. The library is preparing to receive the archive of a former Max Kade Writer-in-Residence, Zafer Șenocak. Expected materials include manuscripts, notes, drawings, poetry, early versions of published work, and a literary magazine. Written in German and Turkish, the collection promises lasting value for German and Turkish literary studies, migration studies, and research on cultural exchange. Once the materials arrive, Mary and GLL professor Kristin Dickinson will begin the careful work of processing and describing them for future researchers.
Whether navigating an archive or a trail, Mary sees her role as that of a guide. Outside work, she’s an avid hiker, dancer, yoga practitioner, and backpacking instructor.“I want everyone who wants to be outside to be able to do it safely and confidently,” she reflected. “The same way I want people to be able to use library materials.”For GLL students and faculty, the invitation is simple: stop by. Bring a research question, an impossible-to-find article, a course idea—or simply a curiosity. Sometimes the path to discovery begins with nothing more formal than noticing that the librarian is just down the hall.
(Header photo credit: Matthew Oishi)
