1. Introduce yourself (name & position).
I am Sidney Lanier and I am the Catalog and Archives Librarian for Syracuse University College of Law.
2. Does your job title actually describe what you do? Why/why not?
Yes and no. We all wear many hats in our library. While I am primarily the cataloging librarian, I have certainly tried to learn some of the ins and outs of database maintenance as well because the two go hand and hand. Sometimes I work circulation and sometimes I work reference. The archival aspect of my job, while probably the most fun part of it, often gets put on the back burner because of more time-sensitive projects. I think most job titles are just an attempt at describing what someone actually does. In reality our jobs often demand cross-training and continuous learning, which I look at as a good thing.. although it can be exhausting at times.
3. What are you reading right now?
Nothing for leisure, haha. I am taking classes in the graduate school, so my free time is occupied by assigned readings and R-coding projects. I look forward to reading for pleasure again after this semester!
4. If you could work in any library (either a type of library or a specific one), what would it be? Why?
I think the library of congress is one that many of us would love to work in and I definitely would love to do that one day. On a divergent note, though, I always thought it would be great to work in one of our national parks’ libraries. The Grand Canyon National Park’s research library would be a very cool experience. I know they get a lot of high quality research data and it would be amazing to be able to sift through some of it to contribute to our parks’ information databases and publications.
