Meeting with Matt/Judy/Diane (my last day)

Today I met Matt Wilcox. Matt is originally from San Diego, California and attended Asbury College in Kentucky for undergrad and the University of Illinois for his MLS. He is the Public Health Librarian and the Director of Academic Technology. He has had his current job for ten years. Other than being a librarian Matt would have possibly like to have been an English professor. His job consists of working with computer labs, students computer, and class computers. This department is the focal point for public health information. Projects that Wilcox is working on are digital library projects and the school of public health electronic thesis. A typical day for Matt is helping students find information for papers and research, meetings, and computer related things depending on the time of the year. Matt's goal is to finish up the closing of the public health library. The most challenging aspect of Matt's job is budget issues, while the easiest is simply getting paid. Matt would like for his job to be on a cruise ship, as well.

After meeting Matt Wilcox, I met Judy Spak. Judy is the Curriculum Support Librarian, and has been so for fourteen years. She attended Hofstra University in New York for her bachelors and Southern Connecticut State University for her MLS. Judy's job includes working with faculty to use technology in teaching and finding materials that are web based. Also, Judy is the Blackboard system Administrator. With Jan, Judy coordinates the Personal Librarian program. Judy is also the liaison to: cell biology, genetics, immunobiology, laboratory medicine, microbial pathogenesis, pathology, molecular biophysics and biochemistry, pathology, pharmacology, physician associate program, surgery-anatomy, therapeutic radiology, and cellular and molecular physiology.

Judy had several memorable professional experiences. One experience was when students brought her chocolate chip cookies. Another was being mentioned by name in the second year program. Also, receiving a special award with Jan at the Physician Associates graduation. Receiving the Jack Cole Award and being recognized by people she has helped are other memorable professional experiences, as well.

The most challenging part of Judy's job is getting through her to do list, while the easiest part is working with very nice people. In the future, Judy plans to still be at Yale.

My day ended with meeting Diane Turner at the Sterling Memorial Library. Diane Turner is originally from Slydell, Louisiana. She attended Grambling State University for undergrad, and then Albany SUNY for her Masters in history and counseling. Diane Turner has been the Associate University Librarian for Human Resources, Organizational Development and Community Relations for eight years. The human resources aspect of the library brought her to Sterling. Diane's office is responsible for hiring, training, recruiting, and the wellness of the library. Her office also works with the school system. A day for Diane may include meetings, negotiating agreements, solving problems, developing and interpreting policies, hiring people, resolving grievances, setting salaries, and university and library committees.

Diane wants to remain active in the community. She is currently trying to raise 5.2 million dollars for the community. Also she wants to stay successful in her profession and family life. In the future Diane would like to travel abroad.

Today was my last day and it truly has been fun. I learned so much while interning and met some great and really nice people. I will forever remember each day that I spent at the Cushing library. For instance, the day that the KIRTAS machine was demonstrated to me, or attending a presentation on books dating back to the 13th century by Sarah. I will be back for the opening of Harvey Cushing's brain collection and will always be thankful for the great opportunity I was given.

Meeting with Liu Hongbin/ Mark Gentry

Today I met with Liu Hongbin. Liu is originally from China, and attended school there as well. He then went to the University of Iowa and received his MLS while there. Hongbin is the Web Services Librarian and has been so for four years. Liu does web design and managing and computing. He created the Cushing/Whitney Medical Library website and maintains it. Last year the website received more than eight million hits. Currently, Hongbin has to move web content information into the content management page and redesign the historical medical library website page, which has been the same for ten years. The most challenging thing about Liu's job is having so many things to learn, while the easiest is knowing how to do his job and talking to helpful people from different departments. One of the most memorable professional experiences Hongbin has had is the August launch of the new website, which received a message from a professor at the law school library complimenting and congratulating him on the work he had done.


After meeting with Liu Hongbin, I met with Mark Gentry. Mark is the Clinical Support Librarian and the Coordinator of Library Technology Services & Support. Mark attended Trent University for his bachelors, then UCONN for his masters in Anthropology, and finally Southern Connecticut State University for his MLS. Mark is also the internal medicine liaison. A project that Mark is currently working on is a collaboration between Yale University and the Makerere University in Uganda. He makes CDs for people going to Uganda, which contain information on several diseases, program documents, how to get access to the internet and library, and maps. In Uganda, Mark helped with technical things and did classes with librarians, as well.

Mark has made web pages for the Cushing/Whitney Medical Library. One of the web pages is PDA/Mobile Devices Resources and Information. He supports mobile devices through classes and training on them. Mark helps patrons, does trainings, troubleshoots, and tries to get systems to work. Many of Mark's most memorable professional experiences include helping someone find what they are looking for.

Meeting with Jan/Janene

Today I met with Jan. Jan in high school wanted to be a librarian and went to schools that had librarian schools. So, she received her MLS from the University of Rhode Island. Jan is now the Education Services Librarian. She organizes classes. There are three kinds of classes. One is the drop in type, which is free of charge and is scheduled monthly. Another type of class is a requested class, which is when faculty or maybe a residency program decides residents need to be taught a specific thing. The third is integrated into the curriculum. Jan teaches a lot and schedules education classes for people. She has had her current position since 1988. Jan also works with teams that are doing systematic reviews. Systematic reviews are basically a study of studies. Jan helps the team find every study that exists on a topic, which could take ten to twelve hours; its a long process. The team is trying to answer a question by looking at the literature systematically. It tends to be better to pool information and study it. There was a case where a study was done over and over again, when really if the studies had been pooled the answer would have been found after the first four studies. Since the information was not pooled and studied, a lot of unnecessary money was spent doing the experiment over and over again.

A typical day for Jan includes troubleshooting, answering emails, meetings, teaching/preparing for classes, and working on projects. One of the most challenging parts of her job is the constant change in technology. Another would be the constant need to learn new things. The easiest aspect of her job is knowing her environment and the people around her. Jan's memorable professional experiences include a conference in Beijing and another conference in Australia. Jan reviewed with me the Basic Steps for an Information Quest and How to Search, as well. I realized that I tend to skip steps when searching for information.


After I met with Jan, I met with Janene. Janene is originally from Australia. She attended the Australia Sturt College of Advanced Education. Also, Janene received her MLS from Southern Connecticut State University. Janene is the liaison to the nurses. She teaches nurses, helps students with research, questions, and reference. Janene has had her position for five years now. A typical day is usually busy for Janene. She has to respond to emails, work on projects, prepare for classes, go to meetings, and look at her calendar. The most challenging thing about Janene's job is doing everything effectively. The easiest aspect of her job is receiving questions from students that she previously answered and questions with quick answers. In the future Janene will most likely be in the same profession, except she wants to be so good at her job that when people think nursing librarian they think Janene.

Meeting with Toby/ Bob

The first person I met with today was Toby. Toby has a PhD in the History of Science and Medicine from Princeton University, and a MLS from the University of Maryland. The PhD took seven years to achieve and the MLS only one year. Toby is the head of the Historical Library. Toby does several things; she purchases all new and rare books that come into the historical library and organizes the manuscript sections. Toby works with donors and does exhibits, some online. She has various digital projects and helps people with resources and inter library loan requests. Toby has had her current position for sixteen years. The most challenging part of Toby's job is juggling so many things at once.

After meeting Toby, I met with Bob. Bob is the business manager for the library. He has had this position for two and a half years. This job includes the responsibility for the library's facilities. For instance, leaking pipes, heating, and construction. His job also includes the responsibility for security. There are millions of dollars in the books, prints, and poster in the library; they need to be protected. Bob is also responsible for the library's budget, which includes the bills, pay roll, spending limit, book fines, revenue, and overall money spent. He is currently working on security upgrades. A typical day really just involves money coming in and money going out. A challenging aspect of Bob's job is deciding what the library is not going to buy that they did in the past. The easiest part of his job is using Microsoft Excel. Besides being a business manager for the library, Bob would like to have taught more on the middle school, high school level as a math teacher. Bob looks forward to experiencing more of Yale and when it comes time for him to retire, he will do more things in his community and perhaps travel.

I was able to attend a Refworks class taught by Charles Greenberg today, too. It was a very interesting class and I learned a lot about the use of Refoworks and databases such as PubMed.

Meeting with Joanna Price

Today I met with Joanna Price. Joanna attended Villanova University in Philadelphia and received her bachelors degree in biology. She interned in a lab, and then received her PhD from Sheffield University in England. Joanna is the Coordinator of Community Programs in Science. She has had this position for three years. A typical day for Joanna involves setting up meetings, talking with different people, and designing programs. One of her science programs is SCHOLARS, which is a summer program for health students from Hill Regional Career Magnet School. Another program is the Science Pathway Program. The Science Pathway Program works with middle to high school students and has special events throughout the year. These special events include the planetarium, neuroscience day, and engineering. She has many other programs and multi-tasking and staying on top of them is a challenging part of her job. The nice part of Joanna's job is that she gets to meet so many people, from students to teachers to scientists.

Meeting with Collection Development and Management

Yesterday I went to the Collection Development and Management Department. The first person I met while there was Chris. Chris catalogs books. She has worked for Yale for 38 years. She has had her current position since 1993 and previously worked at Yale University's Sterling Memorial Library and was an EPH. Chris is currently working on cataloging 15,000 volumes in the stacks that were originally in the Annex. These volumes were never cataloged. So far, only a couple hundred have been cataloged. One of her most memorable professional experiences is when the library was transitioning into computers. Prior to the transition a book would have to go through presearching, acquisition, post searching, and then cataloging. Now cataloging is computer based instead of card catalogs. Getting through all of the books needing to be cataloged is one of the most difficult aspects of her job. Chris enjoys her job, but she will be retiring soon.

After meeting with Chris, I met with Mary. Mary is originally from Rhode Island and attended school there. In Rhode Island she received her bachelors in Health Education and then received her masters from the University of Toledo. Mary's job consists of changing records. The records need to correspond to what is on the shelves, so that there is no confusion for the patrons. Mary updates thousands of records for inter library loans, as well. She also updates a database, HINARI, for the World Health Organization, which gives the latest information on major journals. Two afternoons a week Mary answers questions for patrons that are not able to get material the library is supposed to have. Mary works at the information desk, too. At the information desk she helps patrons with printing and other issues. Also, she puts in holdings for DOCLINE. Mary has had her current position for 3 1/2 years and likes that she does different things. The most challenging thing about Mary's job is responding quickly and accurately to people.

Once I was done meeting with Mary, I briefly met with Daniel. Daniel is the Head of Collection Development and Management. Daniel attended Appalachian State University and received his bachelors in political science. He also received his M.L.S. at the University of Maryland. Daniel fell into working in D.C. under a U.S. senator. From there he went to work at the library of congress, which led to a job at UCONN. After that he came to his current job of 8 years. Daniel buys things for the library, processes them, gets books labeled and cataloged. Also, he manages the electronic collections and troubleshoots problems. A typical day for him includes: digging through his email, reading offers from vendors, working with staff, answering questions, helping to solve problems, looking at budgets, and looking at usage data.

Meeting with Kelly

I also met with Kelly. Kelly digitizes books using a machine called the KIRTAS. The KIRTAS has two heads, one is small and the other large; the heads match the size of the book being digitized. Kelly has to adjust the vacuum and arm speed of the machine. The machine has a fluffer which helps to prevent pages from getting stuck together and not being scanned. The KIRTAS flips the pages of a book, while two cameras photograph the pages. The KIRTAS is wired to the computer so the image is immediately uploaded onto the computer and is saved until it is time to crop various parts of the image out. Kelly sets a border for the cropping and then lets the computer do the rest. Even though the machine does most of the work, Kelly still has to watch the machine closely in case of any accidents that could possibly damage a book.

Meeting with Lynn

I met with Lynn today, as well. Lynn's job involves supporting education and research and publicity and marketing. She helps people use individual specialities, also. Marketing takes up a large part of Lynn's time. She currently has an exhibit taking up three places. Lynn is the Liason to Pediatrics and Dermatology. This includes sending out monthly newsletters, teaching classes, and training for residents. She teaches weekly classes and is responsible for the consumer health collection. The easiest aspect of Lynn's job is working with her department; the people are great and supportive of each other. For Lynn, it is satisfiying to help people. Lynn has been in her position for thirty years.