STEM Teaching Librarian Mary-Michelle Moore, housed in the UCR Library’s Teaching and Learning Department, plays a key role in helping STEM students build research and information literacy skills.

Need help refining a research question? Looking for the right STEM database? Stuck on citations or trying to learn Git or R? That's where Mary-Michelle Moore comes in. Since joining UCR Library as STEM Teaching Librarian in June 2024, she's been supporting students at every level, from foundational research skills to technical tools.

Mary-Michelle came to UCR from other UC and Cal State institutions, where she held various roles including a position at the UCLA Lab School, circulation coordinator, and a library liaison to the social sciences and STEM, among others. Her diverse background made her well-suited for interdisciplinary library work. "My undergrad is a Bachelor of Science in Archaeology, so I know a little bit of everything—bio, geology, chemistry—and I realized I really liked working with the sciences," she said. She later earned her MLIS from Rutgers University.

At UCR, Moore collaborates with colleagues to make the Library's STEM support more visible. She helped launch libstemteam@ucr.edu, a shared email where students and faculty can send any STEM questions without figuring out which librarian or staff member to contact. She also offers Lib STEM Team Office Hours during the quarter to assist graduate students and faculty.

Moore has planned creative engagement activities like a Pi Day spirograph event tied to mathematical patterns and an Ada Lovelace Day Wikipedia editing workshop highlighting women's contributions to computing. These activities reflect her goal of offering approachable, memorable experiences that bring students into the Library.

This fall, Mary-Michelle became the first librarian to teach UGRD 040, a new 2-unit course launched in fall 2025 and developed by the Library’s Teaching & Learning Department. Mary-Michelle’s inaugural course, Optimize Your Research Skills, was designed with undergraduate STEM students in mind. In the course, students explore scientific information, evaluate reports and government data, and prepare a final research poster. "I was so excited to get to do it first," she said.

Mary-Michelle is also a researcher herself, studying how students learn information literacy online and how librarians are portrayed in science fiction and fantasy. Her recent project analyzing Hugo Award–nominated works drew on materials from Special Collections & University Archives. Outside the Library, she combines conference travel with long-distance running, working toward completing a race in every state.

How Mary-Michelle Can Help 

• Develop and focus research questions.
• Identify discipline-specific STEM databases.
• Offer guidance on citations and reference management.
• Support upper-division coursework, posters, and early research projects.
• Assist with tools related to Git, R, and Carpentries content.

Need STEM help? Contact Mary-Michelle at marymichelle.moore@ucr.edu or email the Lib STEM Team at libstemteam@ucr.edu.