Meeting with Preservation Librarian(and my final day)

Today I met with Sarah who is the preservation librarian at the Library. She went to the University of Illinois for art and art history for her undergradute degree. Right after getting her degree she worked as a librarian for 2 years, and went to school for her masters degree in library services. She was inspired by a woman who was a conservator, and after their meeting she became interested and applied for a job at the Library as a preservation librarian, since she had a background on art. She has been working in the Library for 4 years. She preserves the collection, puts up exhibits, keeps the collection available for research, arranges the collection, and secures the enivronment. She makes sure that the books are safe from insects, water, and that the temperature is approriate. Also she gives tours to people, lessons on book history, and works on the database.

The most challenging thing about her job would to be prioritizing the tasks. She wishes there was enough time to sort through the collection, and that there were more student help. Progress is what keeps her happy in her job. She likes to see the bigger picture of what she does instead of just the one thing that she spends her focus on. Her memorable experiences are just feeling the satisfaction that there is some sort of difference in her work. Currently, she is working on a book program called Adopt a Rare Book Program, which involves people being part of the program when they donate money for conservation. She is also preserving the collection of Harvey Cushing's brain collection. As for her future she hopes to still be in her job but at bigger levels as well as working with the digital library, which will have pictures of some the collection.

Today is my last day and it has been so much fun. I have learned so much from the people that I have been fortunate to meet and interview. I will remember scanning an article with Kelly. I will remember seeing old books in the basement that date back to the 16th century like the Copernicus books which explained that the sun was the center of the Earth not the Earth as the center of the universe and all things surrounding the Earth. People thought that the Sun surrounded the Earth, and the catholic church at the time retaliated to the idea of Copernicus. I will remember the ice-cream party which was held at the Sternling library for the staff. I will remember seeing the staff and the building. I really had fun, and I will be back for the unveiling of the Harvey Cushing brain collection next summer. I think will keep coming back for as long as I am in Connecticut!

Meeting with Libray IT Support Librarian

After meeting with Rick, I met with Jason who the library IT support librarian. He makes sure that the systems are running, that students and staff can access their resources, and covers other systems in other departments, He says nothing is really challenging about his job because he is able to get most things done in a timely manner. On a daily bases the systems are running well, and not many systems fail. Although if he could change anything in the job it would be to see the library with more money to get better resources. A typical day for him is attending to problems, and getting software image identical in each system for the staff. He says that having good temperance, and technical skills are important traits for his job. Something that keeps him happy in his job is always having something to do. A project that he is currently working on involves replacing all the machines in the library, and upgrading the software. I asked about how technology will affect our libraries in the future and he says that there will still be a need for printed format, but there will be more electronic materials and study space. He has been in the job for a year and 8 months and will still be in the job depending on how Yale treats him.

Meeting with Circulation Supervisor

After meeting with the library service assistants, I met with Rick who is the circulation supervisor. He manages in access and delivery services, making sure that documents are being delivered to people. He helps people with their databases, deals with public computers, and teaches classes. One of the challenges is making sure that the patrons are receiving their resources. He communicates with people electronically, and through the information desk. A typical day for him is seeing the staff, and dealing with his emails.

He thinks that giving the best consumer service, and being a team player in the department as well as in other departments are personality traits that one needs for the job. What keeps him happy in his job is the fact that he has good staff members. Some of the projects that he is working on is shifting the entire journal collection, and working on a part of the library that is being refurnished for the brain collection of Harvey Cushing. One of his memorable experiences is a program, takes place at the Library once a year, which hosts high students from all over the world who are interested in medicine. He says that it is such a pleasure seeing the students animated about medicine and seeing the seriousness of the medical students who teach them. Some achievements of his are making sure that the department has a good reputation, and going to Mississppi to cook food for Hurricane Katrina victims. He is not sure what he will be doing in about 5-10 years but he hopes to still keeping cooking.

Meeting with Library Service Assistants

Yesterday I met with the library service assistants of the document delivery department. First I spoke with Vermetha, who orders journals and articles, makes sure that they come in, and makes sure that the patrons receive them in a timely manner. She verifies citations which she says is a challenging thing to do. A typical day for her is ordering books, journals, and articles, receiving updating requests, and searching different databases. She has been in the job since 1996, and has been in the University for 24 years. Currently, she is taking classes to become an academic librarian. Then I met with Carol who performs inhouse request. She basciallly retrives articles and print them out for patrons. She started out shelving books 28 years ago, and now likes being a library service assistant.

After speaking with Carol, I met with Kelly who performs digital preservation. She provides information to people by scanning articles from old books that cannot be taken out of the library. She is currently working on the alumni bullentin, and a Peter Parker collection, which she will send to the media center. Some of her acheivements include helping people to find articles, using old stuff, and finding interesting things in old books. She has been in the job for 6 years, and sees herself doing some kind of library type things in the future.

Meeting with Head of Collection Department

So after meeting with the acquisition assistants, I met with Daniel, who is the head of the collection department and management. He manages the department by helping the staff, he makes sure that the budget is proficient and is not over-spent, and he is really involved with HINARI, which is a website that offers books to other countries. Daniel did not start out as a librarian, actually he was interested in politics. He recieved his bachelors degree in political science from the Appalachain State University, but recieved his library degree from the University of Maryland.He likes being a librarian, but says that it is challenging to keep on top of everything. He would like to spend more time on HINARI if there was anything he could change.
What is necessary for him to be happy is being able to not get overwhelmed, just trying to get things aligned. A typical day for him is looking at his schedule, going to meetings, and talking to the staff in the department to see how things are going. He also goes to a class on time management; the activities varies from day to day. His memorable experiences are solving problems of people and working with the staff. One of his acheivements is using funds for usage of data. He has been in the job for 2 and a half years and 8 years at Yale. He hopes to still be in the job and will adapt to the change as the job keeps evolving.

Meeting with acquisitions asssistants

After meeting with Mark, I met with some acquisitions assistants. First I talked with Mary who works in the print journal collection, keep records straighten out online, and answers people problems. She makes sure that people has access to information. The most challenging thing for her is keeping up to date, and not having enough time. If there was anything that she could change it would having enough time to communicate more with people and sharing ideas with them. She is currently working on catching up with the binding, and will be centering information for the interlibrary loan. She also does the reference desk, update records, answer questions through email, website, and face-to-face contact, and provides journals to other countries through HINARI. In the future, she hopes to become a reference librarian because she likes the contact, and is working towards that goal by getting a degree. She has been in the job for 3 years.

Then I met with Jeannette who orders electronic journals through HINARI and EBSCONET. She started off in the circulation department for 21 years, and changed into the collection development. The most challenging thing for her is making sure to get the correct records. On a daily basis she bascially looks at her email, responds to them, and sets up a schedule for the next day. She has been in the career for 44 years, and one of her proudest achievements has been organizing. She hopes that in the next 2-5 years she is retired.

After meeting with Jeannette, I met Melissa who orders books, pays for the books, and catalogs them. Electronic and navigation are both challenges for her. If she could change anything at all in the job, it would be developing more structure and having a clear view of things. She orders books for the historical part of the library, and she says that cataloging is the most difficult. Also she mentioned that having good organization skills and paying attention to details are important traits that one needs for her job. She feels that in order for her to be happy in her job there needs to be a variety of things. She is not working on anything particular at this point other than that she just finished on cataloging books that took a long time since it was a collection. Her acheievements have been learning how to catalog books.

Meeting with Clinical Support Librarian

Today I met with Mark who is a clinical support librarian. He helps clinicians to get information for patients, helps people use technology, create information on Cds, and restructures the PDA page on the Yale website. After getting a masters degree in anthropology, he went to China where he worked for 2 years. He came back and realized that anthropology was not for him, so he applied for a job at a library. He was really inspired by the staff who seemed to like what they did and decided to get his masters degree in library sciences at Southern University. He worked at Saint Francis Raphael Hospital for 13 years, and came in as clinical support librarian 9 years ag0.

A typical day for him varies from day. The most challenging thing about his job is dealing with competing demands, and not having enough time to do all of the basic work. He communicates with people through web pages, emails, periodic classes, etc. He says that for one to be curious, flexible, and willingness to be open are key traits in the job. Though what keeps him happy in his job is the satisfaction of helping people, feeling that he has accomplished something, and the recognition from the supervisors. Currently he is working on redoing the PDA pages on the Yale website, working with the Yale Hospital to get money to support the Library, and teaching a Uganda doctor about the use of technology.

One of his memorable experiences is hearing from people that he has helped in the past, and being asked by a woman how long can you hear after death? He has been to conferences around the country and the world like San Francisco, Texas, Florida, and Sweden, where he was a key speaker to represent the Library. The achievements that he is most proud of' are having access in the clinical areas, and improving mobile devices. He hopes that 5 years from now that he would still be doing some of the stuff that he doing now.