Biographical
Name?
Tim Hensley
Current job?
Director of Collections
at the Virginia Holocaust Museum.
How long have you been
in the field?
I’ve been in the
profession since 1995.
How Do You Work?
What is your
office/workspace like?
My position oversees
the archives, library, and exhibits, so I wind up working throughout the museum.
My office is in the library section of the collections department overlooking our
reading room. This is where I do both administrative work and all the
server-side digital preservation work for the video, audio, and photographic
collections.
I tend to work through
my day based on a floating priority list. As the primary reference person, I
attempt to field as many of the incoming questions as possible. This means I’m
often pushing information to people outside the organization or digging for
something for our staff. The bulk of our internal work is project based, so
what we might be doing at any given time depends on the deadline. I tend to
stagger my workload between physical and mental tasks to keep from getting
bored.
What do you spend most
of your time doing?
I spend the majority of
my time fielding requests for information during the academic year and teaching
during the summer.
What is a typical day
like for you?
It depends entirely on
what projects are on my calendar. Since we are an embedded collection within an
institution, our work is shaped by the needs of the organization. What often
happens is that Monday and Tuesday are spent working through piles of
information requests from the weekend while long and short-term projects become
the focus of more work as the week progresses. Collection development and
processing take place constantly and serve as a nice diversion throughout the
week.
What are you reading
right now?
The Gate to Women’s
Country by Sheri Tepper, Lafayette in the Somewhat United
States by Sarah Vowell, Golden Harvest by Jan Tomasz Gross, and Black Earth: the Holocaust as
History and Warning by Timothy Snyder.
What's the best
professional advice you've ever received?
It’s not one thing that
I’ve been told but rather a collection of things I learned from having a couple
of fantastic mentors. I worked with a reference librarian early on in my career
– Anita White-Carter – who is incredibly gifted. As a graduate student, I
always went to her when I was struggling with a question or some part of a
process; she’s really the reason I took the route I did professionally. The
second was a professor from grad school – Jim Carmichael – who stressed us
weekly with research questions that grew progressively more complex throughout
the semesters. His tactic worked well as it gave me a framework for how to
think about answering questions (any questions!) even if you have no background
in the subject.
What have you found
yourself doing at work that you never expected?
Working with mannequins.
Not the sort of thing most librarians would ever have to know I imagine.
Inside the Library
Studio
What is your favorite
word?
Syncopation.
What is your least
favorite word?
Stupid.
What is your favorite
curse word?
Asshat.
What profession other
than your own would you love to attempt?
What profession would
you never want to attempt?
Auditor.
Everything Else
What superpower do you wish
you had?
Teleportation, especially if it
comes with blue skin and a prehensile tail.
What are you most proud
of in your career?
Not eating my young -- I
say that flippantly but this profession can have a toxic bent I didn’t expect
when I was coming out of grad school, so I’m most proud of serving as a mentor
to young librarians and archivists. I think paying back to a profession that
has given me a talent for research a purpose beyond writing unread academic
articles is likely the most praiseworthy thing I’ve done.
If you're willing to
share, tell about a mistake you made on the job.
I’ve made them all. It
doesn’t matter what realm we’re discussing – collection development, customer
service, material processing, reference services – I’ve fumbled in a variety of
ways both minor and spectacular over the years. I have no intention of
stopping.
When you aren't at
work, what are you likely doing?
It could be anything
but I tend to get the most enjoyment out of reading, drumming, hiking,
traveling, cooking, and long, rambling conversations. I also have an affinity
for pie and whiskey.
Who else would you like
to see answer these questions?
I’d love to see how
Anita White-Carter and Jim Carmichael
would answer these.
Tim tweets at @geistweg.
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