Christine Rickabaugh was at a crossroads in her career when she discovered a book that changed her life — and eventually led her to the University of Arkansas as a librarian and graduate student.

Rickabaugh had quit her job as a public school teacher and was working as a full-time Uber driver in Wisconsin when a rider suggested Rickabaugh read The Library Book by Susan Orlean. The book, a true crime chronicling the 1986 fire at the Los Angeles Central Library and the broader history of the library itself, ignited a passion in Rickabaugh as she read about the day-to-day lives of librarians.

"I read that part and thought, 'This is what I want to do,'" she said.

Rickabaugh returned to school during the pandemic to get her master's degree from the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee in library and information services. While there, she worked with a librarian as an intern when they approached her about assisting with open education — a growing trend in education focused on making high-quality educational resources free and accessible. In Rickabaugh's case, it included working with faculty to create tailored textbooks for courses.

"It was like a lightning bolt," she said. "Here's the library, here's how I love helping people, and here's who I was in the past — open education brought all those pieces together."

"From a pedagogical perspective, they're better for students because faculty can tailor them to their exact learning objectives," she added. "I was able to use my background in education, and it was a chance to bring those two together."

Shortly after, Rickabaugh came to the U of A to serve as the university's open education assistant librarian, where she works with faculty to write and publish textbooks with content tailored to their classes that are free of charge to the students.

"This is my dream job," she said. "If you had asked me before I came here what my five to 10 year plan was, this is it. Running a publishing program and being able to create with faculty is amazing to me."

Shortly after starting at the U of A, Rickabaugh began pursuing a degree in the College of Education and Health Professions' Adult and Lifelong Learning program to advance her career and take advantage of the 90% tuition discount for U of A employees.

"I come from an early childhood education background, and adults are a whole other kettle of fish," she said. "I work so much with faculty in this role — and being able to advise them with confidence when they ask, 'What's the best way to do X, Y or Z?' — that was a big piece."

In the program, Rickabaugh has thrived in the cohort model, which includes colleagues from Mullins Library.

"It's been amazing," she said. "I'm a relational person, so the cohort model is a big part of what drew me to the program. The cohort helps all of us be accountable to each other, and just having classmates that I know and who all support each other, it's helped an amazing amount."

Looking toward the future, Rickabaugh seeks to expand and promote open education beyond just the U of A campus. She is looking at opportunities to help smaller libraries and potentially teaching a course to help others in the region.

"The librarian who helped me at UWM was an amazing mentor, and she instilled in me a passion for helping others the same way she helped me," she said.

For more information on Open Educational Resources at the university, visit the Libraries website. Additionally, the University Libraries and Global Campus offer faculty extra compensation funding to encourage moving from commercially published textbooks to open educational resources. The Libraries will launch a call for proposals that will run from Oct. 13 to Nov. 3. For more information, visit the OER website.