Meet Anna Mayersohn: UB’s New Sciences Librarian

by DENISE WOLFE

When it comes to blending the arts and sciences, new Sciences Librarian Anna Mayersohn is a natural. With a background that spans medieval literature, classics and digital curation, she brings a unique interdisciplinary perspective to her role at the University at Buffalo Libraries.

Mayersohn joined UB on Sept. 8 and will serve as liaison librarian for the departments of Chemistry, Biological Sciences and Physics. Her work will focus on supporting faculty and students through research consultations, instructional sessions and the development of specialized research guides. 

“I was drawn in by the Sciences Librarian position itself,” she said. “My most recent role as a research librarian with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency gave me experience in science librarianship, and I’ve also worked as a high school tutor and college instructor. This job felt like the perfect intersection between those areas.”

She was equally impressed by UB’s welcoming culture. “The interview process really sealed the deal,” she said. “It quickly became clear that UB was exactly the sort of supportive environment I wanted to work in.” 

A native of Wellesley, Massachusetts, Mayersohn earned her bachelor’s degree in English from Haverford College, where she focused on medieval literature and minored in classics. She went on to earn a master’s degree in classics from the University of Kansas and a master’s in information science from the University of Michigan, concentrating on digital curation. Her capstone project at Michigan—creating a “data dictionary” for an ecological database—sparked her interest in science librarianship.

Among her proudest accomplishments is an internship with the Henry Ford Museum of American Innovation, where she built an online archive for the Automotive Design Oral Histories Collection, helping make valuable historical resources more accessible to researchers. 

Outside of work, Mayersohn enjoys reading, crossword puzzles, discovering new coffee shops and spending time with her cat. She’s also a language enthusiast who enjoys studying both ancient and modern languages.

And for a fun fact: she contributed translations to Tales of Dionysus, a 2022 University of Michigan Press publication of the Greek epic Dionysiaca.