Second day: My Interview with Mr. Bean and Ms. Norton

Today, after interviewing Ms. VanTine, I went on to interview Mr. Bean and Ms. Norton,who both work in Access and Delivery Services department at the Yale Medical Library.

I started my interview with Mr Bean, who used to work in the US Air Force . Eventually he decided to leave the Air Force, and he wanted to work in place which had an academic enviroment . First he came back to United States and worked at Barnes and Nobles for couples of years. Later on, he worked at Yale School of Management for 3 years and at Yale Sterling Memorial Library . He then applied for a position at Yale Medical library and was successful. Mr. Bean has steadily worked his way up to his current responsibility.

Mr. Bean believes that an effective librarian has both personal qualities and professional skills. The personal qualities you should have include being able to "read" people's needs and be friendly. The professional qualities include a Master of Library Science degree . Mr. Bean's day-to-day responsibilities are to oversee his department in the evening, supervise a variety of activities, and solve patron problems.

Mrs. Norton, who supervises the Access and Delivery Services Department , says that she also came to her career indirectly. Mrs. Norton always wanted to work in a museum. If she had not ended up in a health sciences library, she might have sought work in some type of museum or historical society.

When Mrs. Norton was young she used to volunteer at museums.  She has worked as reference librarian, cataloger and eventually as an interlibrary-loan librarian. Eventually her career led  to the position she is in now in New Haven.

Mrs. Norton thinks that librarians should be energetic and have a good nature, always wanting to help people in need of information. Librarians need to have a Masters Degree in Library Science but also believes that a person should seek experiences in the front line of  library service.