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.

Meeting with Historical Librarian

After my meeting with Jan, I met with Toby who is the head of the historical library. First she gave me tour of the historical library then sat with me to talk. She buys books either old or new, gives exhibits, anwers questions through email, teaches classes, and works on the digital library which is mainly about images. It is a challenge for her to work on so many things at once. She wishes that there was more time to work on collections. Everyday is different and never boring because she never knows who comes through the doors. She communicates with people through the classses that she teaches, letters, telephone, emails, online exhibits, and tour. She also meets and talks with people through meetings like the History of Science and the American Association of Historic Association. Important traits that one needs in her job is flexibity, knowing the materials, patience, and willingness to know new things.

Toby has a Phd in the History of Science and recieved her library degree from the University of Maryland. Some of her achievements are the various exibits she has done and getting them up, the Darwin exibits, and keeping the records of the bibliography of publications that used unique manuscripts of the medical library. Another achievement is being able to organize a lot of things in the past 15 years. She is currently working on the Bicentennial collection, which involves pictures of old doctors, the first building of the Yale Medical School and Medical Library, and donations of a student assistant of Harvey Cushing, who recently died at the age of 91.She is also helping to make changes on the website. She mentioned to me that technology in the future will be widely used in our libraries, but will take a long time for libraries to fully be vitual. Also she mentioned that there will be few librarians in the future. In five years she hopes to be retired but will volunteer at different places.

Meeting with Educational Services Librarian

Today I met with Jan who is the educational services librarian. She mentors others medical librarians, organizes educational program, and coordinates medical student librarians. She also teaches people how to use and find resources online. It is hard for her keep with technology and how to use it. Although she would like to have an administrator assistant because it would be much easier for everyone who finds it difficult to do perform all of the day's work. Her typical day involves reading emails, organizing classes, and making sure the content is adequate. She communicates with people through email, teaching, and meetings.

An important thing that one needs in her job is curiosity not because that one is loosing interest in the job but that it makes one learn more things. For instance she received an anonymous letter from California that asked the question: Does blood bounce off snow?, and she became so intrigued by the question that she herself wanted to know. She gave the individual a list of sources to contact his local hospital and ask the people of pathology. She says that it is one of her favorite questions. Her memorable experiences is recognizing the need before other people, and realizing that the product for which she felt would be huge became a great thing.

Some projects that she is currently working on is organizing orientations for the new medical students, and making sure that her list for which she will be using to teach is revised and ready for September 14. Next week she will be going to Australia for which she will be representing the library. She has also been to China in which she was a key note speaker for a meeting, and Darthmouth in which she supported the clinical library.

Jan received her masters in library sciences from Rhode Island University, and has been in the career for 35 years. She had always wanted to become a librarian since she was a teenager. So what is necessary for her to be happy in her job is doing the best to her ability with the time that she has. Some benefits the community receives from her job are teaching people how to find information, and helping school nurses by raising awareness. In 5 years she hopes to perform some garden work, volunteering at some places, and tutor students for English.

Meeting with Director of Public Schools(continue August 6, 2009)

After my meeting with Matt, I met with Claudia Merson who works in the New Haven and State Affairs as well as being the director of public schools. She is the contact person between Yale University and the school district, and approves a budget. She had been a teacher, and taught at an educational theater. She went to New York University for her undergraduate degree and Harvard for her graduate degree. She received a masters degree in education. After teaching for 21 years, she moved to Baghdad and taught for 3 years, then moved to Sweden for 11 years. Now as the director of public schools she communicates with people through phone, emails, Facebook, and meetings. Her typical day includes checking her emails, going to meetings, making phone calls, and tracking down old SCHOLARS members. SCHOLARS is a summer program for New Haven high school students which prepares them for their next year courses.

The important things that she does are speaking with faculty, and helping students connect with teachers and teachers with the library. Although the most challenging thing for her is not having enough time to do the things she wants to do. She is currently working on making a partnership with Cooperative Arts School. Her most memorable experience is the partnership between Career High School and Yale University. She also showed me a letter of congratulations from then President Bill Clinton. She loves her job and hopes to still be in the career.