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.