Executive Director Kate Giovacchini serves as featured guest on Libraries in Response podcast
In her recent appearance on the Libraries in Response podcast, Executive Director of the Trusted Learner Network (TLN) and ASU Pocket Kate Giovacchini shared personal experiences and professional insights that impact her work at the intersection of education, technology and trust.
Giovacchini began by reflecting on her early connection to libraries: Growing up, she spent hours in the Scottsdale Public Library’s periodicals section, people-watching and getting lost in books. “The time that I spent there informed and was informed by a very young love of reading,” she said. That love eventually led her to Arizona State University, where she earned a degree in English Literature.
Her path into technology started in a call-center tech support role, helping people solve problems under pressure taught her how interpersonal trust is built. “Trust is always something that’s been interesting to me,” she shared, a through-line that has guided her work ever since.
Giovacchini then introduced listeners to the TLN, describing the platform as “an agency and trust tool for learners that puts control of one's assets and accomplishments back in their hand.” She made the connection that the TLN closely aligns the ethos of libraries, as libraries are places where people pursue self-improvement on their own terms.
Throughout the conversation, she and podcast host Don Means explored many facets of learning, credentials and trust, including:
Importance of interpersonal and institutional trust: How trust is built between people and how institutions can earn and maintain it in a digital age.
The rise of verifiable credentials: Why verified, portable records are becoming the gold standard for trust and credential communication.
Understanding verifiable data: The practical questions behind the scenes: how data is generated, how it’s secured and how it travels with the learner.
Giovacchini also shared a demo of the TLN platform, walking through how the technology works and what a learner’s experience looks like.
By the end of the podcast, one theme stood out: the future of learner empowerment depends on systems — both technical and human — that people can trust.