Getting to Know Keiko Okuhara

 

1. Introduce yourself (name & position). 

Mahalo Lauren for keeping "getting to know librarians" going and giving me the opportunity to introduce myself to my dear colleagues. I am Keiko Okuhara and a mediocre librarian (ha ha!).  I am the Bibliographic Services/Systems Librarian (July 2003-May 2020) and the Metadata Services Librarian (June 2020-Present) at the William S. Richardson School of Law Library of the University of Hawaii at Manoa.

2. Does your job title actually describe what you do? Why/why not?

Yes, it does. I have been working in Hawaii for 18 years by now, and there were many personnel turn arounds during my tenure in my department, including the change of library leadership with new visions.  As the library evolved, I have become more engaged in metadata management work, and the library ventured into the archive collection development. This undertaking made me think of being a certified digital archives specialist (DAS). The training of the specialist expanded and reevaluated my perspectives of the metadata creation. There are various metadata of which cataloging is the highly well-established metadata creation process. While I don't have many archival projects to directly utilize my learning on archives, my role in archives has unfolded to work on oral histories. This work will be an exciting collaboration with my coworker who has experienced in curating archival materials. Also, I am working on the integration of systems, Alma and Omeka; and Omeka and Oral History Open Source system. I could easily slide into this kind of work, since I have some knowledge on the systems and metadata. I look forward to seeing how all these initiatives improve the discoverability of faculty scholarship and leverage our library systems and services.

3. What are you reading now?

I hope you won't expel me from the librarians’ community.... I have to admit and confess that I am not an avid reader, but of course, our most popular leading journal, ”Technical Services Law Librarian.”  I thank the past and current Editor-of -Chiefs, article/column contributors, and layout editors for sharing their great talents that I don't possess! In addition, I like to look through cook books (I have strong affinity to food), the Prescription for Nutritional Healing, and any books or articles on self-improvement, integrity, and the art of happiness in general to maintain body and mind in a good shape.

4. If you could work in any library (either a type of library or a specific one), what would it be? Why?

I would love to work in an art museum/library. What a great idea to be surrounded by imaginative and thought-providing art objects to stimulate our soul, but I also learned that those positions are hard to get and the work at the art museum is not that satisfactory to a certain extent. Also, I would love to be a children's librarian at a public library, which seems to be a popular vote in our community. It is kind of sad reality for me that I wasn't brought up in the USA during my childhood, which inhibits me from sharing my own enjoyment of English children’s literature with young and enthusiastic children.

5. [Imagine the world before the pandemic] You suddenly have a free day at work, what project would you work on?

If I am lucky enough to have a free day at work, I would organize my office. Due to the pandemic I was happily pushed out from the cubicle work condition to an enclosed office. I have accumulated a lot of junk in the course of 18 years of my time at UHM. However I am mainly teleworking and able to work in my office. I need to organize/de-clutter my office to find what I need easily.

Getting to Know Larissa Sullivant

1. Introduce yourself. 

My name is Larissa Sullivant. I am the Head of Collection Services and Adjunct Lecture in Law at the Ruth Lilly Law Library, Indiana University Robert McKinney School of Law.  I started my professional career as a Slavic cataloger at the University of Michigan Graduate Library, and for the last 20 years I have been a law librarian. 

2. Does your job title actually describe what you do? Why/why not?  

I think that my job title, Head of Collection Services, reflects my duties accurately, with responsibilities that include bibliographic and statistical analysis of the Library’s collection; collection promotion, bibliographic selection, and “weeding”; electronic resources management, acquisitions, cataloging, and serials control; supervision of the Technical Services staff. I also handle negotiation of contracts and vendor relations and assist our Library director in budgeting. I have regular hours at the Reference Desk, which during the pandemic means handling virtual reference. The last may not seem semantically connected to the job title, but it is an important part of being successful in my position: I need to know what our stakeholders read and research.

3. What are you reading right now?   

As a native Russian speaker, I am understandably drawn to that nation’s rich, literary traditions. I am currently re-reading Nikolai Gogol’s The Overcoat and Other Short Stories. Each of the stories is a parable of human tragedies and failings: vanity, pettiness, hypocrisy, self-absorption, cruelty towards others, etc. My favorites are The Nose and The Overcoat. The Nose has a decisive element of the absurd: a human-sized, disembodied nose of a privy counselor comes to life, parading around town and acting as a public official. The story is bitingly satirical, a critique of social hierarchies, which is a recurrent theme in Gogol’s work. The Overcoat concerns an impoverished clerk’s efforts to get a new and decent overcoat, so that his co-workers would stop berating him. In heartbreaking detail, it describes the clerk’s efforts in acquiring an overcoat, his various humiliations, and what happens after he finally gets his new coat. 

4. If you could work in any library (either a type of library or a specific one), what would it be? Why?

I am happy where I am: directing the Technical Services unit at the Ruth Lilly Law Library.  I enjoy every aspect of my duties and responsibilities.  My colleagues, both faculty and staff, are well-respected within the Library and the Law School communities and are wonderful and knowledgeable people. I truly enjoy working with all of them!

5. You suddenly have a free day at work, what project would you work on? 

I think slow days in most work environments are rare. If I suddenly had a free day, I would focus first on organization – getting the paper and information monster under control – since, as all librarians know, organization is the key to everything else.  After that, I would chip away at one of my current projects: a comprehensive inventory of our microform collection, reconciling the online catalog bibliographic data with the physical microfiche and microfilm holdings. 

Getting to Know Joan Stringfellow

1. Introduce yourself:

Howdy! My name is Joan Stringfellow and I am the Head of Technical & Electronic Services at the Dee J. Kelly Law Library, Texas A&M University School of Law in Fort Worth, Texas.  Remotely coming to you today from my home office in lovely Bedford, Texas. I have been at the law school (then Texas Wesleyan) since 1993 where I was the receptionist for the school. About six months later, I was hired into the library as the serials assistant. I have worked in every aspect of the law library with the exception of ILL. I received my MLS from the University of North Texas in 2002 and was then promoted to Catalog Librarian.   

2.Does your job title actually describe what you do? Why/why not?

Well, broadly speaking, yes and no. Since our library is a smaller one, this is probably true for many of us! As for the Technical Services part of the title, yes. I have a wonderful assistant, Sharon Jefferson, who does our copy cataloging and adding our new print materials to our collection. She does many other special TS projects as they come up. I am our library system administrator. I do the original cataloging although it is not a very significant amount, it does challenge me at times. Probably for lack of practice! As for the electronic services part of the title, I do it all. I take care of our electronic subscriptions from top to bottom. I perform most steps in acquiring our subscriptions. This includes setting up trials, demos, licensing, ensuring they are complying with state and federal accessibility laws, adding them to our catalog and A-Z list, invoicing, statistics retrieval, and making sure all of our students get their Westlaw and Lexis access set up! We also have an electronic sign in our lobby that I manage. I work with the director and collections librarian to create and manage the budget annually for our electronic resources of the library’s budget. Finally, I am the website editor for the law library’s pages. 

Since I have been here so long, I have also acquired some facilities tasks. I am the liaison for the library working with the IT department, when there are any technical problems within the library public spaces. Specifically, if the library student or staff printers go down, I am the one who coordinates with IT to get those back up and running. The same goes for the public catalogs. We also have electronic compact shelving and I am the point person for any maintenance issues that come up. I will trouble-shoot the issues and, when necessary, work with the vendor for any repairs needed.  

3.What are you reading right now?

So, I really hate to admit this, but I am not an avid reader, though I grew one in my daughter, who cannot get enough! She even became a writing and reading teacher. Makes total sense! When I do read, I love true crime. Way back when I was around 11-12, I remember finding Helter Skelter in my aunt’s room and was just fascinated! I am still fascinated with all things true crime. I also enjoy Steven King. I am amazed at his ability to describe what is going on in the story that I find myself deep in the story like I am really there in the room. I have recently received a couple new books that I am very much looking forward to. Becoming by Michelle Obama and, for Christmas, I received a book on decluttering. Hmmm…was that a hint?  

4.If you could work in any library (either a type of library or a specific one), what would it be? Why?

I have always thought it would be so much fun to work at a specialized library. I love to watch movies and television, so I would love to work at the Disney film or animation library, network library, or other television or movie studio library. When I was in library school we had to apply for our dream job and I chose the MTV Library.

5.[Imagine the world before the pandemic] You suddenly have a free day at work, what project would you work on?

Well, since we are a smaller library, there are always projects to work on. I would love to be able to clean up our catalog from the past migrations and record loads and deletions. I would love to work on making sure all the records are clean, fix any call number problems, and make sure everything is as good as could be. That is the Virgo in me. While I am pretty good at our ILS, I would really love to become an expert!

Getting to Know Liz Manriquez

 

1. Introduce yourself:

Hello!  I’m Liz Manriquez, Scholarly Communications and Reference Librarian at the University of Wisconsin Law Library.  I’ve been with UW for nearly 2 years, previously I was a Reference Librarian and Assistant Professor at the UNLV Boyd School of Law.

2. Does your job title actually describe what you do? Why/why not?

Yes!  In this position I divide my time equally between reference duties, such as working the reference desk and collection development, and managing our digital repository, while assisting with all things scholarly, such as citation metrics and improving the discoverability of faculty scholarship.  I work directly with faculty to enhance their online presence through scholar profiles and to ensure their scholarship is accurately represented within HeinOnline, SSRN, and ORCID.

3. What are you reading right now?

I usually read a few books at a time because my interest wanes, but have been reading much less since COVID began.  I’m currently reading Lady Killers: deadly women throughout history by Tori Telfer for a virtual book club.  I’m also working my way through the Cormoran Strike series by Robert Galbraith.  I’m about to break down and buy the latest, Troubled Blood, because the wait at my local library is 25 weeks!

4. If you could work in any library (either a type of library or a specific one), what would it be? Why?

Definitely the Giamatti Research Center, which is the library for the National Baseball Hall of Fame.  I enjoy all things data and statistics, so it’s only natural that baseball is my favorite sport.  Is there anything better than a sunny day at the ballpark?  One of my favorite memories as a child was going to Comiskey Park with my dad and filling out the scorebook, while we munched on hot dogs and peanuts.  I would love working to preserve the various medias and documents created by the league and its fans, making them accessible to future researchers and sports fans.

Getting to Know TS Librarians: Becky Bearden

1. Introduce yourself (name & position). 
My name is Becky Bearden, and I am the Senior Serials & Metadata Librarian at the Fineman and Pappas Law Libraries at Boston University School of Law.

2. Does your job title actually describe what you do? Why/why not?
Overall, yes, but I think if any of us tried to squeeze most of our overarching duties into our title, they would be too long! I am responsible for all things serial-related, in both physical and electronic formats, but many of those responsibilities intersect or rely on collaboration with my colleagues, so we work closely to manage them as a team. The metadata aspect covers many things that are serial related, but this also includes a lot of monographic metadata. The term e-resource management may not be included in the title, but it is a large part of the role as well. 

3. What are you reading right now?
I have a fairly long commute, so I’ve taken up listening to lots of audiobooks on Overdrive. I have pretty eclectic tastes, so currently I have Fierce: How Competing for Myself Changed Everything by Aly Raisman with Blythe Lawrence, as well as A Storm of Swords by George R.R. Martin. I am also in the middle of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by J.K Rowling at home with my older son, and enjoy a variety of Mo Willems, Bernstein Bears, and Little Critter books with my younger son!

4. If you could work in any library (either a type of library or a specific one), what would it be? Why?
I truly believe I am right where I should be. In general, serials are what I enjoy most about working in a library, and law libraries have a ton of them! Also, this position and institution are still new to me, as I joined BU this past July, and I am really enjoying learning new things, stretching my skills, and using my past experiences in my current role. 

5. You suddenly have a free day at work, what project would you work on?
I’m itching to set up prediction patterns here, since that is something I have been cheerleading since the implementation of ExLIbris’ Alma at my previous institution. This functionality was not available when BU went live in 2012, so they’ve been using the normal receiving functionality for serials receipt.

Getting to Know TS Librarians: Joy Humphrey

1. Introduce yourself.
My name is Joy Humphrey, and I'm the Associate Director of the Harnish Law Library at Pepperdine University's Rick J. Caruso School of Law. 

2.Does your job title actually describe what you do? Why/why not?
My job title is broad, so in that sense, it does describe what I do because I'm a bit of a generalist.  At any given moment I can be fielding a question about our noise policy, originally cataloging a board game, or contacting a vendor to pay an invoice. I'm tasked with overseeing the day-to-day operations of the law library, but I am specifically over the Public Services and the Technical Services Departments.

3.What are you reading right now?
I'm on a Ruth Reichl kick right now. I recently finished Save Me the Plums, Reichl's memoir of her time as the editor of Gourmet, then I moved onto her earlier memoir Tender at the Bone, and I'm currently reading the sequel, Comfort Me with Apples. I love food memoirs, especially at this time of year since they get me pumped to do all that Thanksgiving cooking.

4.If you could work in any library (either a type of library or a specific one), what would it be? Why?
I would love to work in an art museum library.  As someone who makes a point of visiting art museums in every city she travels to, actually working in one would be divine. (I expect the reality would not match my fantasy--budgets are probably small, art books are unwieldy and heavy--but at least the collection would be beautiful.)

5.You suddenly have a free day at work, what project would you work on?
I know this sounds prosaic, but I would clean my office. I mean, REALLY clean it. Go through every file, every drawer, every book shelf. I would Marie Kondo the heck out of it. Because clearing out all that is irrelevant is the best way to bring a fresh perspective to what one does every day.

Getting to Know TS Librarians: Sidney Lanier

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.  

Getting to Know TS Librarians: Kevin Carey

1. Introduce yourself (name & position). 

Kevin Carey, Technical Services Librarian at The Ohio State University Moritz Law Library.

2. Does your job title actually describe what you do? Why/why not?  

Yes!  I actually love my title, Technical Services Librarian, because it is so general and yet specific at the same time.  We are a small department at Moritz, which provides great opportunities to get involved with all aspects of the work we do—as well as sometimes the obligation to take on tasks which typically might not be assigned to a “professional” librarian.  I primarily oversee the diverse cataloging work of all our print and electronic resources, but I also get to work with serials, microforms, bindery and preservation, collection maintenance, and even our college archives.  There are so many things we get to be involved with simply by virtue of the work being “technical” in nature.  And having a title that connects directly to our half of the traditional library divide is often a great opportunity to explain to colleagues just what “technical services” is, in libraries generally and then in terms of how our work supports the rest of our institution.

I also have an additional title as Building Coordinator for Drinko Hall, which houses the Moritz College of Law, and in that role I am responsible for all aspects of facilities maintenance, housekeeping, security, and emergency procedures for the college, not to mention all our renovation projects, large and small.  That part of my job is probably how most of our faculty and non-library staff know me best—and it always keeps things interesting!

3. What are you reading right now?  

While I was flying Southwest earlier this year, I read an article in the in-flight magazine about their founder Herb Kelleher, who just died in January, and I was really taken by his ethos of “love” as a manager and business leader.   So while I look forward to one day reading a biography of Herb Kelleher the man, in the meantime I have been learning about his company in Nuts!: Southwest Airlines’ Crazy Recipe for Business and Personal Success.

4. If you could work in any library (either a type of library or a specific one), what would it be? Why?  

I have spoken with many of my fellow librarians who would answer the same way: I would love to be a children’s librarian at a public library.  I have two elementary-school age daughters—plus a handful of young nieces and nephews here in town—and I actively embrace the role of personal librarian for these fascinating little people.  In fact, much of my non-work reading relates to children’s literature, as I try to come up with the next just-right recommendation for my growing readers, and I just love to shepherd them through that process of figuring out what they want to read—and why.

Getting To Know TS Librarians: Jean Willis

1. Introduce yourself (name & position). Please provide a picture to be posted to the TechScans blog.

Jean Willis.  Currently Interim Director at the Sacramento County Public Law Library.  My “usual” title is Assistant Director for Support Services.  Our Board of Trustees appointed me to the position of Interim Director when my boss, Coral Henning, sadly passed away in late March.

2. Does your job title actually describe what you do? Why/why not?

Interim Director is quite accurate.  However, I feel that my “usual” title is squishy.  What does it mean?  Essentially, it is “Not Public Services.”  I supervise Technical Services and IT for our Library, which is an independent local district government.  So our IT Team handles all of the technology needs for our Library.  We are not part of any overarching organization, such as the County government, despite the Library’s name.

Our Technical Services Team consists of a Tech Services Librarian, who handles Acquisitions and Claims but also works regularly at the Reference Desk, handles virtual reference shifts, teaches legal research basics classes and serves on our Collection Development Team.  We have a Cataloger, who also works at the Reference Desk and handles virtual reference.  Both Librarians also are responsible for updating and maintaining some of website content, including Legal Research Guides, Step by Steps and Everyday Law articles. Then we have a Serials Control Assistant, who checks in most of our materials, handles some copy cataloging, and she also works regularly on our Circulation desk. 

Our IT Team consists of two Systems Analysts who handle everything from soup to nuts involving technology at the Library.  I supervise these two Teams, plus fill in at Reference, teach legal research basics classes, serve as a Passport Acceptance Agent and generally assist in the day-to-day management and administration of the Library.   Of course, the latter duties have increased exponentially since the Director’s untimely demise.  Because our other Assistant Director for Public Services retired about a year ago, and was not yet replaced, I am also now fully supervising our Public Services Department and our Civil Self-Help Center, which is staffed by an attorney and a paralegal.  Yes! I am ridiculously busy right now, especially considering that my “usual” job was already full-time.  Time management plays a huge role in my work life these days.  Plus I am grateful to have super, hard-working staff, who have really stepped up to the plate at this challenging time.

3. What are you reading right now?

Typically, I have several books going at one time.  Right now, I am really fascinated and taken by the Neapolitan Novels authored by Elena Ferrante.  Just wonderful novels about love, friendship and growing up in post WWII Naples.  Today I started book two, The Story of a New Name.  HBO is also dramatizing these works, and the video of the first novel, My Brilliant Friend, is available for viewing and highly recommended. 

The other book I’m reading is called The Betel Nut Tree Mystery, by Ovidia Yu.  This is set in 1930s Singapore and presents an interesting counterpoint to the Crazy Rich Asians trilogy, which I also enjoy as light reading.

4. If you could work in any library (either a type of library or a specific one), what would it be? Why?

I am working in the exact type of library that I would choose (really).  Throughout my career, I’ve worked in almost every type of law library: in law firms, law schools, courts, legal aid and more recently public law library.  I’m truly happy to provide such a needed public service to our constituents.  It was exciting, challenging and stimulating to work in all of those other types of law libraries, but this answers my interest in providing true public service to our community plus access to justice for all. 

5. You suddenly have a free day at work, what project would you work on?

We want to expand our Lawyers in the Library program, perhaps to collaborate with the Sacramento Public Library, to offer this service in different areas of our county and on more and different days and times.  I simply don’t have time to develop this project right now but would love to see it come to fruition. 

Getting to Know TS Librarians: Rachel Evans

1. Introduce yourself (name & position). Please provide a picture to be posted to the TechScans blog. 
Rachel Evans - I am the Metadata Services Librarian at UGA Law Library. I had been at UGA School of Law in the library's I.T. department for close to 7 years in a web coordinator role before taking a position as a librarian last November 2018. As the web coordinator I had wonderful opportunities to work closely with all of the librarians and library staff on various projects, many of which overlapped with my new job title and duties, so applying for and taking the metadata role was a no-brainer! As the Metadata Librarian I work with other librarians on the Leadership team, Systems team, Digital Commons team, and continue to attend law school Web team meetings. 

Here's a link to Rachel's bio: http://law.uga.edu/profile/rachel-s-evans

2. Does your job title actually describe what you do? Why/why not? 
It both does and doesn't. In the sense that metadata is a part of nearly everything created and maintained by the law library, the title obviously applies. I manage several collections in our Digital Commons repository including some conferences and other events as well as librarian presentations and articles. I also do batch loads into our ILS from various vendors, load authority records, manage e-book discovery records, and change our physical back-up tape. The list could go on... metadata is not limited to my individual role though, and in a way it suits my job no more than it would anyone else who edits records in our catalog or adds items to our repository (and there are so many of us that share those responsibilities - aren't we all metadata librarians?!). A better fit might be something like "web" services or "electronic resources"... but now I'm just being picky!! It is a cool sounding title, albeit one that always requires extensive explanation from well meaning but non-librarian family members ("meta-what?!").

3. What are you reading right now? 
I am currently working my way through two books. The first is actually about one of my husband's distant uncles, Torment in the Knobs. It  historically recalls the 19th century story of Mason Evans, legendary hermit for 40 years in the area surrounding Starr Mountain, Tennessee. It is one of several books we recently acquired featuring different versions of Mason's life. The second is one I just started reading, The Piano Teacher. This novel is a continuation of a reading list I started over a year ago to read the novels that served as the basis for films I had seen or wanted to see. I loved the film by the same name which was actually the first Heneke film I ever saw. I have read so many wonderful novels from this list and it continues to grow as I discover more and more books that did not realize were the basis for some of my favorite tales on screen. Other highlights I've read from this series of reading: Pinnochio, Frantic, Spiral Into Horror, Mouchette, Don't Look Now, The Makioka Sisters, Watership Down, Diary of a Country Priest, Tess of the d'Urbervilles, Half In Love, and Berlin Alexanderplatz.

4. You suddenly have a free day at work, what project would you work on? 
I am extremely excited about two projects. It would be a very tough call as to which I would focus on if I had a completely and totally free day. One is a usability testing study I am working on with a small team. We hope to screen capture a group of user clicks through our online catalog (Sierra) and our discovery layer (Ebsco) as they follow prompts we have designed. My goal is that the results will not only reveal which platform better serves us, but also allow the library to discover how our users travel through each site and to find problems that need fixing. The other project would be cleaning up and re-organizing our various websites. We have several: Digital Commons repository, LibGuides, and a few Drupal sites (both public facing and an intranet). Part of this clean-up is already underway with Digital Commons, and I am having great fun working with our Archives Librarian Sharon Bradley to simultaneously clear old event photos off of the public law school web server and preserve/re-organize our digital photos in the online repository. There are SO many pieces to the various site puzzles though... a single free day would just not be enough!

Getting to Know TS Librarians: Keelan Weber

1. Introduce yourself (name & position).

Hi! I’m Keelan Weber, Head of Cataloging and Resource Management at the University of Nebraska College of Law, Schmid Law Library. I am brand new to law librarianship, having started in September 2018. Prior to my current position, I worked in e-resource management for the University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries.

2. Does your job title actually describe what you do? Why/why not?

Yes, it actually does! The majority of my job is cataloging and maintaining our resources and managing two amazing staff who work to make our materials available for our Law College community.

3. What are you reading right now?

I’ve gotten into the habit of reading one fiction and one nonfiction book at the same time. I’m currently finishing up Prayers for Sale by Sandra Dallas (I loved True Sisters… this is not as good, but still a nice read) and Son of a Critch by Canadian comedian, Mark Critch which is perfect Newfoundlander story-telling packed with laughs.

4. If you could work in any library (either a type of library or a specific one), what would it be? Why?

I think archives are a fascinating place. I would love to discover long-lost letters or objects. I had wanted to be an archaeologist as a kid and I think working in archives would give that same feeling of the potential for a wondrous discovery.

Getting to Know TS Librarians: Nariné Bournoutian

Introduce yourself (name & position).
Hello, all! I'm Nariné  Bournoutian. I am the Head of Continuing Resources and Collection Maintenance at Arthur W. Diamond Law Library, Columbia University. I've been at the Law Library since 2014 and in my current role since November 2018.

Does your job title actually describe what you do? Why/why not?
It definitely does! I oversee two separate units in the Technical Services department. The CR unit processes incoming print serials/microforms and communicates with vendors to ensure fulfillment of all our paid subscriptions. The Stacks unit is responsible for the physical organization of the library stacks, reshelving books, and keeping the collection updated by filing supplementation and replacing superseded volumes.

What are you reading right now?
I'm in my fifth semester of my MLIS program, which doesn't leave a lot of time for fiction reading, unfortunately. But I've been on a sci-fi short-story compendium binge lately, since it's easier than trying to intermittently read a novel. I recently finished Ken Liu's The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories and am currently working my way through The Winds of Marble Arch and Other Stories by Connie Willis. Science fiction is my favorite genre, and these stories are a welcome break from mountains of assigned reading and essays!

If you could work in any library (either a type of library or a specific one), what would it be? Why?
My undergraduate focus was film studies and I worked in my college's media library as a student. I would love the chance to work with a time-based media/AV collection again and combine my two areas of study. 

Getting to Know TS Librarians: Jessica Pasquale

1. Introduce yourself (name & position). Please provide a picture to be posted to the TechScans blog.
   Hello! My name is Jessica Pasquale and I am the Head of Scholarly Publishing & Intellectual Access at the University of Michigan Law Library. I was initially hired as the Scholarly Publishing & Systems Librarian in fall of 2011, and was promoted to my current position in May of 2017.
2. Does your job title actually describe what you do? Why/why not?
   Somewhat. The "Scholarly Publishing" part encompasses my work with the student-edited law journals and our institutional repository, as well as my involvement with our faculty publications bibliography and support of faculty scholarship. The "Intellectual Access" part is even more broad and is meant to cover my supervision of cataloging services, and management of our LMS, website and repository. The part that is missing is "Systems," since I also oversee the administration of all library technology and systems (LMS, ILL, Website, LibGuides, etc.).
3. What are you reading right now?
   I don't normally read more than one thing at a time, but I am currently trying to finish up some ebooks that all came in at once (The Bucket List, by Georgia Clark, When the Lights Go Out, by Mary Kubica, and Educated, by Tara Westover) in addition to finishing up The Agony and the Ecstasy, by Irving Stone, and trying to re-read the entire Harry Potter series, one book per week, for a Trivia League.
4. If you could work in any library (either a type of library or a specific one), what would it be? Why?
   I spent a lot of my childhood involved in music and I love travelling to Europe--the history, the architecture, and the food are so amazing--so someday I really want to visit the Melk Abbey library in Austria (though I'd probably rather visit as a researcher) since they have an incredible collection of original music manuscripts.

Getting to Know TS Librarians: Carol Collins

1. Introduce yourself (name & position). 

Greetings fellow TS-SIS members.  I am Carol Morgan Collins, Head of Technical Services, Joel A. Katz Law Library, University of Tennessee, College of Law.  I began work here as Catalog Librarian in 2001 and was promoted to Head of Technical Services in 2012.

2. Does your job title actually describe what you do? Why/why not?

Yes, but Technical Services work seems to vary among libraries. The functions at Katz include cataloging, serials management and claiming, processing physical items, loading catalog records to provide access to electronic resources, exporting records to the discovery layer, and coordinating campus-wide access with the main library.

3. What are you reading right now?

I am reading Nonviolent Communication a Language of Life by Marshall Rosenberg.  

4. You suddenly have a free day at work, what project would you work on?

If I have a free day at work, I would dig deeper into the history of the University Of Tennessee College Of Law.  Earlier histories are available, but I have uncovered information from digitized collections not incorporated into those versions. I find the biographical facts of early faculty members fascinating.

Getting to Know TS Librarians: Gypsy Moody

1. Introduce yourself (name & position). 
Gypsy Moody - Cataloging Librarian at Belmont University College of Law

2. Does your job title actually describe what you do? Why/why not?
It describes only a small portion of what I actually do.  At this point, my time is spent doing a lot more metadata management and systems work than strict cataloging.  I started in this position over seven years ago, when the law school was founded.  My duties have grown, developed and evolved as the library has established itself and needs have arisen that I was able to fill.  I have learned Qualtrics to run our student satisfaction surveys, tackled a systems migration and configuration to become the Alma Administrator for the Law Library, and manage all aspects of the Law School collections in the Belmont’s Digital Repository.    

3. What are you reading right now?
In my quest to better understand Scholarly Communications, I located the NASIG Core Competencies for Scholarly Communication Librarians and have been trying to find the bottom of the Open Access articles rabbit hole...

4. If you could work in any library (either a type of library or a specific one), what would it be? Why?
I believe being a solo librarian would be a fascinating, challenging and rewarding job.  I have been given the opportunity to work in so many facets of librarianship and I think there would be something very poetic about wrapping it all up with a nice bow as a solo librarian at a small art college or museum. 

Getting to Know TS Librarians: Aaron Retteen

1. Introduce yourself (name & position). 
Aaron Retteen, Digital Services & Repository Librarian.

2. Does your job title actually describe what you do? Why/why not?
Yes and no, because I do focus a lot of energy on maintaining and improving our institutional repository, but I have taken on a scholarly communications librarian role as well by consulting with faculty on all aspects of the research lifecycle. Copyright consultations regarding published scholarship, as well as educating faculty about scholarship impact data and altmetrics, are big aspects of my position that aren’t readily apparent in the title. Like many other librarians today, I also take on other roles as needed (and for me, these roles typically involve technology to some extent).

3. What are you reading right now?
Actually, a lot of different titles all of the time, but these titles are currently on my desk and resources I’m paging through a lot:

• Wu, Michelle M., editor. Academic Law Library Director Perspectives: Case Studies Andinsights. William S. Hein & Co., 2015.
• Kroski, Ellyssa, editor. Law Librarianship in the Digital Age. The Scarecrow Press, Inc., 2014.
• Allan, Barbara. The No-Nonsense Guide to Project Management. Facet Publishing, 2017.

4. If you could work in any library (either a type of library or a specific one), what would it be? Why?
I’ve always thought it would be cool to work in the Library of Congress in some capacity, because of my interest in politics and the United States government in general.

5. You suddenly have a free day at work, what project would you work on?
Oh man, there’s so many big projects I want to work on! I would probably work on my project to build a scholarship reporting solution through an easy-to-use web application. Or maybe start planning a library website refresh. Or collect empirical data for my scholarship project. I should look into getting an RA or two!

Getting to Know TS Librarians: Sue Burkhart

Sue Burkhart is the Acquisitions Librarian for the 11^th Circuit Court of Appeals Library and she has been here for 24 years.  She grew up in Middle Georgia and went to Tift College in Forsyth, GA (now closed) and worked in a library for the first time as a student assistant. From there she travelled around the country and worked in libraries wherever she went.  Sue got her MLN from Emory University with two young children in the house.

Sue worked at a law firm in New York City, Mercer University Law School Library, and the University of Southern California Law Library before starting with the Circuit Library.  She began her career here as the catalog librarian keeping our online catalog up to date.  She moved on to acquisitions of legal materials for the libraries, the judges and other court staff.  She is also in charge of our Library Digital Collection of court historical material.

In her spare time, Sue enjoys spending time with her nine grandchildren and travelling to visit them as often as she can.  She also has an old English bulldog who takes her for a walk rather than the other way around.  If there is any time left she enjoys quilting and reading.

1. Does your job title describe what you do? Why?

I believe my job title does describe what I do. Since we have a small library staff I get to wear many hats.  I am the Acquisitions Librarian purchasing reference materials for judges, probation officers, federal public defenders, and other federal court staff in Alabama, Florida, and Georgia. I am also the Catalog Librarian performing copy cataloging using OCLC and original cataloging when the demand is there. I am also the Serials Librarian in charge of bindery for the few law reviews that we still bind. I am also in charge of our Digital Collection which consists of staff scanning historical court documents, creating metadata for these items, and entering them into our digital repository.

2. What are you reading right now?

I am usually reading two or three books at the same time.  I like all genres but at the present time I am reading historical fiction and non-fiction. For my book club I am reading America’s First Daughter by Stephanie Dray and Laura Kamoie. This is an interesting look at the life of Thomas Jefferson through the perspective of his daughter, Martha “Patsy” Jefferson Randolph, from the time she was a young girl, acting as hostess at the White House during the presidency of her father, and through his death. I am also reading Not Everyone Gets a Trophy by Bruce Tulgan so that I can learn how to better manage members of the millennial generation.

3. If you could work in any library what would it be? Why?

If I could work in any library it would be the one that I am working in right now. I have been here for 24 years and I still love my job. People ask me when I plan to retire and right now I can not give them an answer.  I like the variety of things that I do everyday.

4. You suddenly have a free day at work, what project would you work on? 

I do like the variety of tasks that I do everyday, but some days it feels like I don’t get a lot accomplished because I do have so many things that need to be done.  If I suddenly had a free day at work I would work all day on our library digital collection. That always seems to be at the bottom of my list of things to do but I like having our court history available to people who are looking for a specific item and we don’t have to go looking in file cabinets for them.  

Getting to Know TS Librarians: Celia Gavett

1. Introduce yourself (name & position). 
Hi everyone, I'm Celia Gavett. I'm actually at a point of transition between two positions within Columbia Law School's Arthur W. Diamond Law Library, so the invitation to interview for this blog post came at an interesting time! Since January 2016, I have served as the Head of Continuing Resources & Collection Maintenance. Starting October 1st, I will be working as a Law Cataloger (my first post-MS ILS position).

2. Does your job title actually describe what you do? Why/why not?
Yes, I think the job title for my current position is accurate. As Head of CR & CM, I manage two small teams responsible for print serials processing and maintenance of the stacks, respectively. These two units also handling filing (microforms and print supplementation) and claiming, so although a joint CR & CM unit is perhaps a less common combination, there are several ways that communication and workflows overlap. We are expecting a very large series of book moves within the next year, so I've definitely been thinking more about ways to streamline and improve upon the shift planning processes we've used in the past.

In my upcoming position as Law Cataloger, I'm looking forward to taking on original and complex copy-cataloging of items in various formats and languages. I really enjoy learning new things, and I'm excited to contribute to another area of Technical Services.

3. What are you reading right now?
For work, next on my list is to check out Steven Carl Fortriede's Moving Your Library. Now that I don't have assigned readings from LIS coursework, I'm gradually getting back to more leisure reading too. As a fairly eager home cook, I've enjoyed flipping through J. Kenji López-Alt's The Food Lab over the past couple of months. I know there are a lot of musicians in the law librarianship ranks too, so I'll also mention that I'm trying to get back into playing piano for leisure more regularly -- a couple weeks ago I dusted off my old copy of Mozart sonatas and have found it fun to (badly and stiffly) sight-read a movement or two at a time.

4. You suddenly have a free day at work, what project would you work on?
Free time is especially unexpected for me these days, since our entire Technical Services Department is working through a complete retrospective inventory project. If I suddenly had a truly free day at work with no sensible catch-up tasks to do, I might take some extra time to play around with some of our ILS's reporting functions, because there's always another interesting tip or quirk to discover. I might also try to study up on a bit of basic bibliographic/legal vocabulary in a language I don't read.

Getting to Know TS Librarians: Ryan Tamares

1. Introduce yourself (name & position). 

Hello, I’m Ryan Tamares, Head of Collection Services, Robert Crown Law Library, Stanford Law School. I began my work at the library as Lead Cataloging Specialist in 2004, and was promoted to the role of Catalog Librarian in 2013. I have held the title of Head of Collection Services since 2016. My experiences in technical services roles have been so helpful, providing much background from where the collection has been as well as informing on how the library might proceed in the future.

2. Does your job title actually describe what you do? Why/why not?

This is not inaccurate, but doesn’t tell very much about what I do. Officially I oversee the cataloging, processing, and preservation of my library’s collection. I collaborate with my colleagues in other departments as well as the main campus library to make sure library users are able to find and access resources, regardless if they are physical or otherwise.

3. What are you reading right now?

I began reading Pamela Druckerman’s There are no grownups (Penguin Press, 2018) on my flight to AALL Annual in Baltimore, and am nearly done with the book. On professional readings, I am taking a look at two new titles: Elevating customer service in higher education : a practical guide / Heath Boice-Pardee, Emily Richardson, Eileen Soisson (Academic Impressions, 2018), and Reengineering the library : issues in electronic resources management / edited by George Stachokas (ALA Editions, 2018).

4. If you could work in any library (either a type of library or a specific one), what would it be? Why?

Given the choice, I would love to work in a music library, as that is in part my training—my undergraduate degree is in music education, and I earned a Master of Music in bassoon performance. Having a background in performing and teaching music has truly informed me about working with others as well as training people. These are skills that have helped me greatly as a librarian.

Getting to Know TS Librarians: Jason LeMay

1. Introduce yourself:
I am Jason LeMay, Assistant Law Librarian for Cataloging and Metadata at Emory University’s Hugh F. MacMillan Law Library in Atlanta, Georgia.

2. Does your job title actually describe what you do? Why/why not?
Most of the time, yes. My primary role is cataloger, and during normal times I spend a substantial amount of my time at work cataloging more complex materials that need original cataloging. I also spend a fair amount of time cataloging rare materials, with a large backlog of early modern European dissertations to guarantee that I’ll be busy for quite a long time.

Most recently, I’ve been spending the bulk of my time performing my now-retired supervisor’s duties – paying invoices, dealing with vendors, and general administrative technical services tasks. Now that this position has been filled, I anticipate being able to return to my growing backlog of cataloging.

3. What are you reading right now?
I actually just finished my latest book yesterday, The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank. I’m finally getting around to my list of “books everyone should read,” and Anne Frank’s diary was up near the top. I’ll probably keep with the theme and start on Wiesel’s Night next.

4. You suddenly have a free day at work, what project would you work on?
I would probably tackle some rare books that have been getting neglected. I have a few bound-withs that are waiting that would probably top my list. I generally dislike cataloging bound-withs, so they tend to get left until I truly have time to work on them.