Libraries Tour ’08: A Tale of Two Arteries

Sometimes the heart of a library is below the stacks. Sometimes it shares a wall with the men’s restroom. But regardless of physical location, collection development and management runs through the Bailey/Howe and Dana Medical libraries like a major artery.

“We have contact with a lot of departments,” explains Wendy Gunther, who shares a workload and workspace with Chris Krupp as specialists on Peter Spitzform’s Collection Development team. Essentially, their job is to put Bailey/Howe’s body of work in contact with users and to put texts in context. Or, more succinctly, get stuff in here and then get it out there. Roam the tomes, as it were. “People have no idea how much they do,” Spitzform says.

So, people, here’s some of what they do:

Wendy and Chris are the first stop for new books (between 250 to 300 per week from Yankee Book Peddler alone) and they often serve as the starting point for new book orders (in fact, I ordered “The Invention of Everything Else” while I was visiting—see sidebar). Wendy and Chris are in constant contact with shipping, cataloging and acquisitions. They also interact with interlibrary loan, reference and special collections. And you’ll often see one of them restocking the new book shelf in the lobby or reloading up the beloved free shelf outside their office. Wendy also populates the popular reading section on the second floor and both of these employees lend their hands to ordering –Wendy with educational films; and Chris on monographs that aren’t available through Yankee. But it’s all a labor of love for them.

“I adore books and variety,” Wendy says of her work. And, clearly, she and Chris get plenty of both.

People probably don’t have a clear picture of Dana’s Tech Services/Collection Management department either. It’s such detail-oriented work on behalf of the patrons that there’s not much time for public relations about internal operations.

Tina Kussey is the main contact for putting things in context. She is the Collection Management Librarian in charge of all technical services functions, among other things like troubleshooting, with the help of her team which includes famed staffer-of-the-year Sandy Aldrich and soon-to-be-retired Helen Olson.

Tina is a usage guru, who can tell anyone at any time how much of what is being used and when. She can also provide cost-per-use data down to the penny. Needless to say, her command of EXCEL is excellent. And armed with all this information, Tina helps the Dana Medical Library make decisions about their collection. She also helped lead the charge for finding ways to share Tech Services workflows between Dana and BH. (There’s a link to their report in the blog entry below.)