Have You Met Sonya Betz, the Head of Library Publishing and Digital Production? Spend a few minutes getting to know her a little better.
What has it been like working in a digitally-focused space given the shift to remote work?
There’s a real interest in increasing access to digital resources and in publishing low or no-cost textbook options, though there are already a number of high-quality open access resources that were not as in demand in the past. The past decade has seen huge improvements in how we understand and can provide open access to scholarship.
What is your first U of A memory?
I was a MA student in English when I first came to U of A in 2002. I remember going to the Butterdome to get my OneCard…heading into that giant, yellow building with thousands of other students was quite the experience. I have a Butterdome butter dish to commemorate the experience.
If you were enrolling in one course, program or degree right now, what would it be?
I’d be really interested in some kind of zoology course where I could study animals in their habitat and be involved in field work. I think that would be fascinating.
If you could see any live performance tomorrow, what would it be?
I would love to go to Interstellar Rodeo again, it was such a great music festival!
What is something your coworkers don’t know about you?
They know a lot about me, I’m fairly open… but they probably don’t know that even though I’m an avid gardener, all of my houseplants die.
You can invite anyone — alive or dead, real or fictional — to dinner. Who would it be?
My grandfather just passed away, and I would love to have another dinner with him.
What advice would you give your 18-year-old self?
Not to worry about what everyone thinks. Be confident, make mistakes, don’t be afraid. My 18 year old self was so concerned with how people perceived her, and now I do not care about those kinds of things.
What is your favourite distraction?
Being outdoors, reading, talking to my friends and laughing about the world.
What is a weird pet peeve you have?
Most of them are pretty standard, I think: loud telephone talkers, unnecessary rules….
What is your favourite lunch or snack to enjoy while working from home?
I really like being able to go out into my garden and pick some raspberries or a ripe tomato, pull out a carrot… snacking right from the garden.
What is one thing you can’t live without?
My wonderful husband, he’s the only thing I could not do without.
About Sonya Betz
Sonya Betz is the Head, Library Publishing and Digital Production Services with the U of A Library. Her team works on making research and scholarship more accessible through open access publishing initiatives, open textbooks, and large-scale digitization projects. Sonya is deeply interested in collective approaches to solving thorny issues around information access, and she works closely with national and international partner organizations, like the Internet Archive, Educopia, and the Public Knowledge Project. When she’s not busy advocating for barrier-free access to publicly-funded scholarship (sometimes to hapless strangers at parties), you can generally find her hiking up mountains, or growing veggies in her garden.