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.

Meeting John Gallagher/Lecture by Sarah

Yesterday, I met with John Gallagher, the Deputy Director of Public Services for the Cushing Library. John is originally from Ireland and went to a Regional Technical School and received his business associates, while there. He then came to America and attended Southern Connecticut State University where he received his BS in management and his MLS.

He first worked for RPS as a FedEx ground manager. That job was a total of eighty hours a week. The many hours a week were taking away from valuable time needed to be spent at home, so he pursued other jobs. A friend of his got him interested in a job in librarianship and so he applied for a casual job at the Sheldon Library. From the Sheldon Library he obtained degrees in between and then arrived at the Cushing Medical Library. In April of 2000 he was the evening circulation adviser, and then he became head of circulation. He is currently the Deputy Director of Public Services for the Cushing Library. Gallagher is also the liaison to the Department or Orthopedics and a personal librarian.

A typical day for John is meetings, primarily on large scale digitization. A grant was received to digitized books from 19th century medicine, other schools like Harvard and Columbia are part of this project as well. Besides that he has to work on construction projects, do strategic planning for the library, answer questions, help patrons, and get feedback from patrons about the library. He would like to be able to put more medical material online, so that its convenient for doctors, nurses, and other professionals who are extremely busy. Challenging aspects of his job include ensuring that the historical library is relative and visible to people and working with the limited resources he has for the library. John enjoys his work and has fun and feels like he is doing something valuable, and is nowhere near retiring.

I was able to attend a lecture by Sarah, the library preservationist. Sarah had several books out, one of them from the 14th century and another from the 16th century. A page from the Gutenberg Bible printed on vellum was being presented. The Gutenberg Bible is the first example of movable type. There are around 30 whole known Gutenberg Bibles in other libraries. The Cushing Library only has a page of a bible because people would break up the bibles to make money. Around 200 sheets were bound and sold separately. I also learned that the Cushing has one of the largest Vesalius collections in the world. Vesalius is known for his series of muscle men, which blew his competition away. The first book that had medical printing in it was in 1491, as well.

Sarah has a background in art history. To preserve the books she controls the humidity and light surrounding them. She will also go through all of the books and decide which books need help, which ones are emergencies, and what can sit and wait. More money would help in the preservation of these books.

Meeting with Mary Angelotti

Today I met with Mary Angelotti, the document delivery manager. She has had this position since 1999. Ms. Angelotti is originally from Connecticut and attended Southern Connecticut State University. She received her BS degree in history and had intended on becoming a teacher. Teaching was always her professional goal. While at Southern Connecticut State University she received her MLS and MS in health science. Each are two year programs.

Mary Angelotti started at the law school library, binding. The law school library she found interesting. She then went to the Beinecke and from there she went to the hospital library and was a director there. After that she worked at the nursing library in the reference room. Ms. Angelotti enjoyed this because it was small and she was able to get to really know the students. From there she came to her present day job at the Harvey Cushing Medical Library.

The document delivery department has three services: borrowing, lending, and MACS. The borrowing service orders things Yale doesn't own for its patrons. While the lending service will lend books to other libraries and even extends to corporations like law services and pharmaceutical companies. MACS is the Medical Article Copy Service, which is an in-house photocopy service. MACS is available for staff and students of Yale.

A work day for Mary is from 8:30-5:00, though she usually stays until 6:00. A typical day includes seeing if a book is owned by another library, then checking orders, followed by printing and filling, and then telling their user friendly DOCLINE what they filled and reject what they didn't. About eighty or ninety orders come in a day. This department has 48 hours to fill the request because people need these things quickly. If an order is not filled in that time period then it goes to another library. The criteria for judging a library is how fast they get orders out and the fill rate. The fill rate for this library is 75%, which is good.

According to Mary Angelotti the most challenging part of her job is getting work done in the time allotted. Machines will break down and staff will be out, causing the work process to slow. While the easiest part is using the departments programs, DOCLINE and ORBIS, also the online catalog.

Mary Angelotti's goal is to stay sane, considering that she has a very hectic job. Another goal is to get the orders out and develop good training for staff. The document delivery department is currently dependent on the circulation desk because of a shortage in their office, so they will need to be well trained.

Besides meeting Mary Angelotti, I was able to tour the downstairs section of the library and see where the display of a collection of brains will be. The space looks nice and I'm sure the display will be out of this world.

Today was another successfully fun and interesting day.