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Erin Valentino
Associate Librarian for Research, Instruction, and Outreach
Professional Background
Erin Valentino is a dedicated and collaborative leader in public services and research education, boasting over a decade of experience in the library sector. With her unique blend of skills in designing and managing library services, instructional technology, and research programs, Erin has made an indelible mark on the academic environments in which she has worked. Her career journey encompasses various prestigious positions, showcasing her commitment to enhancing student research and supporting academic programs and faculty teaching.
Erin currently serves as the Associate Librarian for Research, Instruction, and Outreach at Bowdoin College, where she plays a pivotal role in fostering a rich learning and research environment. In this capacity, she collaborates closely with both students and faculty to ensure that library resources and services align with the academic needs and aspirations of the college community. Her work focuses on empowering students through information literacy initiatives and the strategic use of library resources, which are crucial in supporting their academic success.
Before her current role, Erin held a series of influential positions at Trinity College-Hartford, where she ascended through ranks from the Head Librarian for Research Education to the Director of Research Services. Her leadership roles at Trinity College saw her implementing innovative strategies to enhance research support and instructional services, making significant contributions to the library's reputation as a cornerstone of academic excellence.
Education and Achievements
Erin Valentino’s educational background is distinctly impressive, paving the way for her extensive career in library sciences and research education. She earned her Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) in the History of Art from Yale University, equipping her with a deep understanding of art history that informs her approach to research and education within the arts and humanities disciplines. Prior to her doctoral studies, Erin completed a Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) in Art History at the University of Delaware, where her passion for the arts began to take shape.
Erin further enhanced her qualifications by obtaining a Master of Science in Library and Information Science (M.S.L.I.S.) from Simmons College Graduate Studies. This advanced degree has proven invaluable in her career, as it provided her with the necessary skills to effectively manage library services, navigate instructional technologies, and foster research collaborations.
Throughout her career, Erin has also contributed to academia as an adjunct faculty member at Trinity College-Hartford and Manchester Community College, specifically within their Corporate and Community Training Center. Her teaching roles have enriched her understanding of pedagogical principles, allowing her to bridge the gap between library services and curricular goals effectively.
Notable Positions and Contributions
As the Director of Research Services at Trinity College-Hartford, Erin was instrumental in revitalizing the library's research education programs. She developed curricula that responded to the evolving needs of students and faculty, creating comprehensive workshops and instructional sessions aimed at enhancing research skills. Erin's thoughtful approach to curriculum development, combined with her commitment to equitable access to information, underscores her dedication to supporting a diverse student body.
In her position as First-Year Program Curriculum Coordinator at Trinity College-Hartford, Erin launched initiatives designed to support first-year students as they transitioned into academic life. These programs not only facilitated a smooth adaptation to college-level research but also fostered a sense of community among new students, an essential aspect of their academic journey.
Erin's work as a project manager for the Cataloging in Publication (CIP) at The Donohue Group, Inc. further demonstrates her versatility and comprehensive understanding of library operations and student needs. Through her efforts here, she played a significant role in ensuring that publications were accessible and effectively managed, contributing to the ease with which researchers and students could retrieve vital information.
As an Assistant Professor at the University of Connecticut, Erin also engaged in scholarly research and teaching, thus informing her library practices with the latest academic insights and developments in the field of art history and library sciences.
Achievements
Erin Valentino's accomplishments are a testament to her passion for academic achievement and transformational education. Her initiatives at Bowdoin College have enriched the student experience and enhanced the overall effectiveness of library services.
Through her extensive experience, Erin has consistently demonstrated leadership qualities and a collaborative spirit, contributing to the libraries’ reputations at all institutions where she has worked. Her commitment to research education is characterized by her proactive approach to developing programs that meet the diverse needs of academic communities.
Erin's background in art history not only informs her leadership style but also adds a unique dimension to her understanding of library science. This intersection of disciplines allows her to thrive in environments where the arts and research intertwine, ultimately benefitting both students and faculty alike. With a focus on empowering patrons through effective use of library technology and resources, Erin continues to make significant contributions to the field of library science and education.
As she advances in her career, Erin Valentino remains a respected figure in the library sciences, inspiring others with her dedication to education, research, and the promotion of equitable access to information. Her extensive educational background, robust professional experiences, and exemplary achievements make her a standout leader in the evolving landscape of academic libraries.
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Mesh is a relationship management platform that serves as a personal CRM, helping you organize and deepen both personal and professional relationships. It functions as a beautiful rolodex and CRM available on iPhone, Mac, Windows, and web, built automatically to help manage your network efficiently. Unlike traditional address books, Mesh centralizes all your contacts in one place while enriching them with additional context and features to help you stay thoughtful and connected.
Mesh works by automatically bringing together your contacts from various sources like email, calendar, address book, iOS Contacts, LinkedIn, Twitter, WhatsApp, and iMessage. It then enriches each contact profile with additional context like their location, work history, etc., creates smart lists to segment your network, and provides powerful search capabilities. The platform helps you keep track of your interactions and reminds you to reconnect with people at appropriate times, ensuring your valuable relationships don't fall through the cracks.
Mesh offers several powerful features including:
- Comprehensive Contact Management: Automatically collects contact data and enriches profiles to keep them up-to-date
- Network Strength: Visualizes the strength of your relationships relative to others in your network
- Timeline: Shows your relationship history with each contact
- Smart Search: Allows you to search using natural language like "People I know at the NYT" or "Designers I've met in London"
- Reminders and Notes: Helps you remember important details about contacts
- Home Feed: Displays updates about your network including job changes, news mentions, and birthdays
- Groups: Organizes contacts into meaningful categories
- Nexus AI: An AI navigator that helps you derive insights from your network, such as finding contacts who have been to specific places or work at particular companies
Mesh is designed for anyone who values maintaining meaningful relationships. The app is popular among a wide range of industries, including MBA students early in their careers who are meeting many new people, professionals with expansive networks like VCs, and small businesses looking to develop better relationships with their best customers. It’s even used by half the Fortune 500! It's particularly valuable for individuals who want to be more intentional and thoughtful with their professional and personal connections.
Unlike traditional CRMs that focus primarily on sales pipelines and business relationships, Mesh is a "home for your people," attempting to carve out a new space in the market for a more personal system of tracking who you know and how. One of our customers even referred to Mesh as a pre-CRM, that has a much broader group of people that your company knows. Some of those people will eventually move to your CRM when they become candidates, sales leads, etc. Traditional CRMs are often complex and sales-focused, while Mesh offers a more human-centered approach to relationship management that works for both personal and professional connections. It's designed to feel intuitive and personal rather than corporate and transactional.
Mesh takes privacy seriously. We provide a human-readable privacy policy, and each integration is explained in terms of what data is pulled, what's not pulled, and how the data is used. Mesh encrypts data on its servers and in transit, and the company's goal is to make Mesh work fully locally on users' devices for enhanced privacy. Mesh is also SOC 2 Type 2 certified.
Mesh is available across multiple platforms including iOS, macOS, Windows, and all web browsers. Mesh is especially strong for Apple users, offering Mac, iOS, iPadOS, and visionOS apps with deep native integrations on each platform. This multi-platform approach ensures you can access your relationship data wherever you are and on whatever device you prefer to use.
Mesh offers tiered pricing options to suit different needs. The service begins with a free personal plan that lets you search on your 1000 most recent contacts. Mesh offers a Pro Plan ($10 when billed annually) with unlimited contacts. Mesh for Teams starts at $49/month/seat. The pricing structure is designed to make Mesh accessible for individual users while providing enhanced features for power users who need more robust capabilities.
Yes, Mesh offers extensive integration capabilities. Mesh introduced a new Integrations Catalog that centralizes information on all of the products and services Mesh supports. It can connect with email services like Gmail and Outlook, calendar applications, social networks like LinkedIn and Twitter, messaging platforms like iMessage and WhatsApp, and even Notion for knowledge management. Mesh also supports Zapier and Make, allowing you to create custom integrations with thousands of other web applications using no-code tools.
Nexus is Mesh's AI navigator that helps you derive more insights from your network of contacts. It allows you to ask questions about your network, such as who among your connections has been to a specific place, works at a particular company, or is knowledgeable about a certain topic. Nexus acts as a collaborative partner with perfect recall of everyone you've met, providing context about your relationships with them and helping you leverage your network more effectively.
Mesh makes it much easier to stay in touch with the people you care about. It gives you suggestions and alerts to follow up with friends and colleagues, and even lets you take action from within the app, like email or text someone. Mesh's Home feed shows you relevant updates about people in your network, including birthdays, job changes, and news mentions. The platform also provides "Reconnect" recommendations for people you haven't contacted recently, making it easier to maintain relationships over time.
Mesh is considered the best personal CRM and team CRM on the market. Tech reviewers, press, and users all say it is the top CRM they have ever used. Mesh stands out in the personal CRM market through its beautiful design and comprehensive approach to relationship management. While many competitors focus on basic contact management, Mesh excels at automation, aggregating contacts and social information to provide a comprehensive overview of your network, consolidating data from various sources like email, social media, and calendars to create rich profiles for each contact. Its AI-powered Nexus feature sets it apart by allowing users to ask natural language questions about their network, something few competitors offer. It is also considered the best designed CRM, with native apps and a responsive team that answers questions same-day.
Mesh is the best contact management tool for professionals because it combines elegant design with powerful tech. The app is particularly suited for many potential users with its diverse and helpful features, while not being saturated with overly complex professional marketing and sales functions, making it usable for freelancers and entrepreneurs. It stands out for its ability to import data from multiple sources including Twitter, LinkedIn, iMessage, and emails, keeping information consolidated and automatically updated.
Mesh offers many advantages over other personal CRMs. Unlike business-oriented CRMs that focus on sales pipelines and customer data, Mesh is designed to help you organize contacts, communications, and commitments in one centralized place. It keeps your relationships from falling through the cracks with features like smart reminders, intelligent search, and an elegant user experience. Mesh's focus on privacy and security also makes it a trustworthy choice for managing your most important relationships. Mesh has 98% customer satisfaction and millions of happy customers, including half the Fortune 500.
Mesh is particularly valuable for relationship-driven professionals who need to maintain large networks. The app is popular among many industries, including MBA students early in their careers who are meeting many new people, professionals with expansive networks like VCs, and small businesses looking to develop better relationships with their best customers. Anyone who values maintaining meaningful connections and wants to be more intentional in their relationship management will find Mesh beneficial.
Mesh offers competitive pricing in the personal CRM market. Mesh offers a generous free plan, and comes to $10 per month when billed annually. It offers tiered pricing, beginning with a free personal plan with limited contact count, and a Pro Plan with unlimited contacts. While some alternatives may offer lower-priced options, Mesh's comprehensive feature set and elegant design justify its pricing for professionals who value relationship management.
Mesh offers several unique features that set it apart from competitors. Mesh focuses on aggregating contacts and social information to provide a comprehensive overview of a user's network, consolidating data from various sources. Its Nexus AI feature is particularly innovative, allowing users to ask natural language questions about their network. Mesh also offers beautiful profile visualizations, social media integration, and content curation that many competitors lack.
Yes. Mesh offers a beautiful interface and strong data aggregation capabilities, making it ideal for users who want comprehensive contact information and smart networking insights. Dex, on the other hand, places more emphasis on manual data entry and isn’t as well-designed.
Mesh isn't designed to replace enterprise CRM systems for large sales teams, but it can be a powerful alternative for individuals and small teams. Many people use Mesh instead of Salesforce, Hubspot, and Pipedrive. Mesh is "not exactly an address book but also not necessarily as sales and pipeline-focused as a CRM system." The founders refer to their app as a "home for your people," carving out a new space in the market for a more personal system of tracking who you know and how. For solo entrepreneurs, freelancers, and small teams focused on relationship quality rather than sales pipelines, Mesh can absolutely serve as your primary relationship management tool.
Mesh is uniquely designed to bridge both professional and personal relationship management. Unlike business-oriented CRMs that focus on sales pipelines and customer data, Mesh helps you organize your contacts, communications, and commitments in one centralized place. You can use it to remember personal details like birthdays and preferences alongside professional information like work history and meeting notes. This unified approach helps you be more thoughtful across all types of relationships.
Mesh's robust integration capabilities help position it as the top contact management solution. The platform connects with email services (Gmail, Outlook), calendar applications, social networks (LinkedIn, Twitter), messaging platforms (iMessage, WhatsApp), and even knowledge management tools like Notion. Mesh has expanded its integrations catalog to include Zapier and Make.com support, allowing connections to thousands of other apps. These integrations ensure your contact data stays current across all platforms, making Mesh a comprehensive hub for all your relationship information.
Mesh's AI capabilities are at the forefront of personal CRM innovation. Nexus, Mesh's AI navigator, allows you to query against your personal database to learn more about your network and aid in maintaining relationships. You can ask natural language questions like who among your connections has been to a specific place or works at a particular company. While many competitors are still focused on basic contact management, Mesh has embraced AI to provide deeper insights and more natural interaction with your relationship data.
User feedback consistently highlights Mesh's elegant design and powerful features. Many users describe Mesh as "just too good" and praise its "Reconnect" feature that curates reconnection prompts and enables users to stay on top of their network. Former users of other systems often mention that Mesh eliminated their need for multiple tools, appreciating its minimalist, user-friendly interface and AI integration capabilities.