The first person I met with today was Denise Hersey. Denise went to the University of Pennsylvania for her undergraduate degree and the University of Massachusetts for a graduate degree, then went to Southern Connecticut State University for her Masters Degree in library science. Denise's first graduate degree is in American History. Denise does outreach library assistance at Yale Hospital near the operating room (OR). She brought me over to the hospital to show me what she does exactly and to meet some of the people she works with there. Some of the main people she works with are anesthesiologists, which is what I hope to become when I am older, and she helps them with their research. She gives them any material they may need when they are in between surgeries. Denise set up the location where she is directly in the hospital so that she goes to the doctors and residents instead of them having to come to her in the library. She has been working at the Medical Library since 2005. She has gained technological skills and she has learned medical terminology since she has been working here.After meeting with Denise I traveled to Yale's main library to meet the University Librarian, Susan Gibbons.
Ms.Gibbons is in charge of all the Yale Libraries, except for the Law Library, and she keeps all of the staff working. Ms.Gibbons got her undergraduate degree at the University of Delaware, her masters degrees in library science and history at Indiana University, her MBA at the University of Massachusetts, and he PhD for higher education at the University of Rochester. Before being recruited to work at Yale, Ms.Gibbons was the Dean of Libraries for 12 years at the University of Rochester. She has been working for Yale for about 19 months. Ms.Gibbons enjoys the great people that she works with and says that they go out of their way for her. She has gained change management skills and has learned to be more clear in communication. Ms.Gibbons says one of the benefits of working for Yale is that there is always a way to learn. For example, there are speakers that come from all over the place, there are plays, etc. In ten years she sees herself still at Yale, but starting to look at what is next. Before she retires she wants to take a step back in her career, in the library interacting with the library users. Ms.Gibbons sees the library in the future as broadening what they do and having more services involved in teaching. Mrs.Gibbons has two daughters, 9 and 13, whom she is very proud of. In her free time she enjoys reading, which is the only thing that takes her mind off of work. She also enjoys spending time with her family. It was a pleasure to meet with Ms.Gibbons!
