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The Library & Information Science Professional's Career Development Center |
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My Job as
Research Librarian at Monticello by Bryan Craig |
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I am the Research Librarian at the Jefferson Library at Monticello (also known as the Thomas Jefferson Foundation). This job is a special library position in a historical museum. As in any subject-specific librarian position, I have found it is helpful to have a history background, because I can understand my users needs like historiography and resources. So it is good to have at least a minor, but preferable to have an undergraduate or advanced degree in history. In my particular case, I have been a history lover since I was a child. I minored in history and then ended up getting a M.A. in history focusing on England. However, Presidential history has always interested me and there was a running joke in library school that I should apply for one of the presidential libraries. Just my luck, I read an ad for this job in the Chronicle of Higher Education, applied and got the job. The Chronicle is a good place to find these jobs. There are other sources like American Libraries or H-Net Jobs http://www.h-net.org/jobs/ but it might be better to check out websites of the local museums directly. Like most reference work, this job is focused on reference, instruction, and collection development primarily on American and world history in the colonial and Early Republic period. In library school, I focused on reference, instruction, and took a class on collection development. From these core classes, I learned skills such as discerning authority and accuracy, searching databases and the Internet, reference interview techniques, teaching skills, and using reference sources. However, as in many special libraries, this is where the specialization stops. You must be a generalist. It is helpful to know technology like HTML, FTP, Integrated Library Systems, usability issues, and database design. You might need to learn Interlibrary Loan, metadata, general cataloging principles, and administration, as well. The key is to continue taking workshops, electives, and be aware of as many library functions as possible. As a generalist, if you have previous work experience, it is good to be a sponge and soak everything in at any job, because you never know when something could be useful down the road. My primary patrons are staff members, the general public, scholars, and fellows who are part of the International Center for Jefferson Studies at the Foundation. When I arrived on the scene, the library was a small in-house research center. Now, it is a multi-service library with its own building. (We do support seven departmental libraries such as Guides, Curatorial, and Archaeology.) As I alluded to earlier, I do a number of things. I am the reference librarian; most of my questions come from email and walk-ins. It took me a year to get comfortable with all the resources on Thomas Jefferson, and I am still learning. I get a range of questions, but most deal with either Jefferson quotes or Jefferson family genealogy. With quotes, most of Jefferson’s more than 18,000 letters are not searchable by keyword, so we can only spend so much time trying to find needles in a haystack. The Jefferson Library also does not have a lot of genealogical material, so I do what I can. I teach bibliographic instruction sessions on specific databases, provide library orientation, offer training on our online catalog, the Jefferson Portal (http://tjportal.monticello.org/), and have just started offering Information Literacy sessions, as well. I handle Interlibrary Loan, circulation, stack maintenance, and collection development. I also maintain the library’s website (http://www.monticello.org/library/index.html). You get the picture: with a small staff, you do everything from changing light bulbs to web design. It has been a wonderful opportunity to learn so much in a short period of time. In the first year or so, I designed a library website, helped choose a library system, aided in a Foundation-wide information inventory, consulted on the building, and even did some cataloging. By the time we moved into our new 15,000 square foot facility near Monticello, the research library had been renamed the Jefferson Library, and my boss and I began to market ourselves to our staff and the public more heavily. (This was usually done through site visits and email.) When we moved in, I had to implement the library system and begin to work on the policies and procedures for the building and the library system. By this time, we added a paraprofessional; thus I became a supervisor. Six months later, we hired a full-time cataloger. You might ask yourself how I survived without losing my mind? Good question. Besides a good sense of humor, I really did rely on my library and information science education and previous work experience. Also, it is great to have a good boss who has an open door and wants to discuss issues as they come up. This job and the library itself are more mature now. However, there are many things still to do. There are still building issues. We still need to market ourselves (as do all libraries) and label books in a few more departmental libraries. However, it is the special projects that help make the library and my job grow. Presently, I am working with our webmaster on a new database of questions and answers. With this database online, a patron can search for an answer at his or her convenience, and it would cut down on the reference time. This database can also act as an archive for those questions and answers, because the paper files are an immense storage problem. We are stretching MARC to the limit here. We are bringing in records of materials we actually don’t even own! For example, Jefferson had many libraries in his lifetime and our goal is to find as many OCLC records for those books and include them in our Portal with a series link indicating which library that book was in. We have no plans to purchase these books, we can’t afford it, nor do we have the space, but a researcher can come to the Jefferson Portal and find the information and go from there. Also, we are adding rich annotations from Frank Shuffelton’s Thomas Jefferson: A Comprehensive, Annotated Bibliography of Writings about Him, 1826-1997. (Dr. Shuffelton has gone beyond 1997 now.) As I reflect back, I probably learned more about a library than I would have if I followed my original job path, academic librarianship. I am proud to play a small role in making the Jefferson Library the world headquarters for the life, times, and legacy of Thomas Jefferson. Since 2000, Bryan Craig has the Research Librarian at Monticello. He received both his M.A. in history and MLS from Kent State University. Article published Nov 1, 2003; revised Nov 19, 2003 Disclaimer: The ideas expressed in LIScareer articles are those of their respective authors and do not necessarily represent the views of the LIScareer editors.
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Page last updated
10/03/2005
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