Interview Post: Violet Fox

Biographical

Name?
Violet Fox

Current job?
As of June 2018, I work for OCLC as one of the editors of the Dewey Decimal Classification.

How long have you been in the field?
I started working as a library student worker in 1995 and worked as a paraprofessional for seven years, but I was outside of libraries for a while (buy me a drink and ask me about my job as an internet content moderator). I got my MLIS in 2013 from the University of Washington iSchool.

How Do You Work?

What is your office/workspace like?
The Dewey editorial team has been working at the Library of Congress since 1932, so in keeping with that tradition I work at LC, but in not the fancy Jefferson building—the boring building next door. I keep my cubicle pretty sparse. The two computers reflect the two organizations I work within: one belongs to OCLC, the other to LC.

How do you organize your days?
I use handwritten lists on scratch paper for daily tasks, color-coded Google calendar entries for longer term tasks, and text documents for ideas for future projects.

The Pomodoro Technique is a lifesaver.

What do you spend most of your time doing?

There’s a lot of research, especially researching topics that potentially need revision in the DDC schedules: recent subjects I’ve investigated include sewage systems, coloring books, eunuchs, and BASE jumping. The editorial team is only four people, so we work closely together to review each other’s work and bounce ideas off each other. I’m still learning the ins and outs of the editorial rules that govern the development of the DDC, so I refer to those frequently.

What is a typical day like for you?

Things I might do in a typical day: answer a question from a Dewey user, review another editor’s work, research one of my own projects, investigate the history of a particular Dewey number, reach out to one of our international partners for suggestions on how to address a particular problem. Sort through email. Lots of phone/video meetings, since my boss and most of my coworkers work in Ohio. I often have lunch or a coffee break with someone from LC; it’s difficult to get to know anyone outside my tiny department, so I try to be intentional about reaching out and making connections.

What are you reading right now?
I recently finished Naming Nature: The Clash Between Instinct and Science by Carol Kaesuk Yoon. I’ve been reading a lot about classification in a variety of fields; Yoon’s book is a popular science discussion of the history of scientific taxonomy and how it differs from folk taxonomy.

I just started The Almost Nearly Perfect People: Behind the Myth of the Scandinavian Utopia by Michael Booth. Work is sending me to Stockholm & Oslo next month for a conference and it’ll be my first time overseas, so I’m reading up to alleviate some anxiety about that.

I’ve outsourced all my memory of books I’ve read to my GoodReads account, which leads to moments of panic as I totally blank when anyone asks what I’ve been reading.

What's the best professional advice you've ever received?

I’ve heard Dr. Nicole Cooke (@LibraryNicole) speak a few times and have walked away energized and inspired by her focus on figuring out what you want your legacy to be. Reflecting on that periodically helps me focus my energy on the things that matter to me (e.g., making the case for the value of metadata, being encouraging to new library folks, bringing transparency to my work).  

What have you found yourself doing at work that you never expected?

Defending Dewey (the classification, not the man)

Inside the Library Studio

What is your favorite word?

I love learning new color words. Recent favorites are corbeau (a very dark shade of green, almost black) and eau de Nil (a pale green).

What is your least favorite word?

Every single word that comes out of the mouth of the man currently living in the White House.

What profession other than your own would you love to attempt?

Throughout the years I’ve taken a few personality tests that suggest likely careers based on my temperament. Usually number two is librarian, and for whatever reason, number one is always X-ray technician. So I should probably give that a go if this library thing doesn’t work out.

What profession would you never want to attempt?

Marketing.

Everything Else

What superpower do you wish you had?

Just the regular power of not having to struggle with depression. That’d be neat.

What are you most proud of in your career?

Whatever I’ve been able to contribute towards building communities of generous and compassionate people in the overlapping circles of librarianship that I inhabit.

If you're willing to share, tell about a mistake you made on the job.
Honestly, I don’t even—where would I start? I’ve had entire jobs that were mistakes.

Most of my mistakes are the result of procrastinating, which is absolutely my worst trait. Not wasting time putting off small tasks is the life lesson I never seem to learn.

When you aren't at work, what are you likely doing?

Often organizing zine librarian stuff or, occasionally, critlib stuff. Occasionally writing Wikipedia articles. Thinking about the next issue of my zine about roadside attractions. Sending snail mail. I moved halfway across the country for this job, so a good amount of my time is spent traveling to visit my spouse, or counting the days until our next visit.

Who else would you like to see answer these questions?

A few of the amazing folks from my grad school cohort: Alyssa Jocson-Porter (@itsuhLEEsuh), Elizabeth Brookbank (@elizabethbrookb), and Eli Gandour-Rood (@eliganrood).

Violet tweets at @violetbfox.

Interview Post: Bryony Jane Ramsden

Biographical

Name?

Bryony Jane Ramsden

Current job?

Subject Librarian for Human and Health Sciences at the University of Huddersfield. I mostly look after students in nursing and allied health professions, but as the other health librarian and myself are both part time, we provide support according to what day somebody needs help! My role has changed this academic year though, as I’ve been given a user experience role (brand new to our library).

How long have you been in the field?

What feels like a LONG time! I have that common tale where I got a shelving job at the local public library when I was an undergrad, and liked working in the environment and the nature of the interactions so much I ended up working towards qualification. So, if you count when I started my shelving job, I’d say around 19-20 years. That IS a long time, then!

How Do You Work?

What is your office/workspace like?

We have an office for all the subject and academic librarians and all the subject assistants, around 20 of us altogether, with our own personal desks. My desk is like my house, a personalised, organised mess – I know EXACTLY where everything is, even if it doesn’t look like that! We used to live in separate subject-related offices, but they were gradually removed to be (rightly) dedicated to student use instead. I don’t always manage to work very well when it gets busy and noisy, but I love working with everyone here. We have a good team.

How do you organize your days?

Thinking about it, today is probably the first day I’ve had a chance to organise my day because I’ve been so busy this last term! They are generally split between meetings in the school for course committees and student panels, appointments with students or academics [Editor’s Note: I believe that translates to “faculty” for those of us in the US.], providing training for information skills (plus this last couple of months I’ve been running a number of internal UX methods training sessions), and staffing the help desk, although we do that from our office now instead of actually sitting at the desk. But as I wrote this I only had desk duty, and we were winding down for the holidays, I had a to do list of things to sort out before I went on leave.

To do lists are the best way for me to keep track and organised, as I can do all the calendar scheduling/planning I want for tasks but if the phone rings or I get an urgent email asking to advise on a tricky query, I could easily end up spending my scheduled time on that instead. We don’t provide a systematic review service for our academics, but academics and higher level students often ask for support on making sure their search strategy is working and is comprehensive/systematic enough. That can be challenging and time consuming, but is just fascinating!

What do you spend most of your time doing?

It depends on the time of year. In term one, mostly inductions and teaching, and then as it gets further in I have a lot of student appointments. In term two, I’ll have a few January-intake classes, but it’s a lot quieter than in September, so I spend more time on student appointments than classes. Once things are calmer in the new year, I willspend more time on revising my teaching content and looking at stock purchasing/editing before the next round of assignments are due in and the course committee meetings and student appointment requests increase again.

What is a typical day like for you?

It will start with me coming in and having breakfast because the bus service isn’t amazing, so it’s just easier for me to set off earlier and have a calm, relaxing start to the day. I’ll check my calendar for any meetings/teaching etc, go through all my emails, and check ‘TopDesk’ (an online enquiry management system we’ve adopted at the University) for anything that might have been designated to me to respond to. That can include students asking for help with referencing or requesting an appointment, or staff asking if we can buy a new journal or resource. If I’m on the rota for the desk first thing, I also go on to Twitter/Facebook and Questionpoint to see if anyone has sent us a question out of hours. Then I’ll write up a to do list of what I want to get done that day, which might be checking what has been added to the reading lists for any out of stock titles, or planning training sessions, or working on what will be in the next display.

What are you reading right now?

I just finished The Hate You Give by Angie Thomas, which was brilliant, and have moved on to re-reading The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood, as it’s a long time since I last read it, and I want a reminder before the new book comes out…

What's the best professional advice you've ever received?

Ask for forgiveness instead of permission ;-) This isn’t always appropriate, but it works very well a lot of the time, and even then you don’t have to ask for forgiveness that much!  

What have you found yourself doing at work that you never expected?

Crafting! This is an academic library, so most of my time is spent talking to people about research on wound care and that kind of thing, but we’ve been running regular sessions for anyone to attend where we make things, help people de-stress, and if they want to (they don’t have to) they can ask us library-related questions. All of which means I get to knit and paper craft as part of my job! Yay!

Inside the Library Studio

What is your favorite word?

Defenestration.

What is your least favorite word?

I have lots, changing depending on the day, all of which are normal words, but because of the job have grim meanings. Today’s will be crust…

What profession other than your own would you love to attempt?

I’d quite like to try working in a baking co-operative like the Handmade Bakery in Slaithwaite. I imagine it can be stressful like any service is, but the idea of making delicious bread and other baked goods in a co-operative environment is appealing.
 

What profession would you never want to attempt?

Working in a call centre: a thankless task where they get blamed and shouted at for things that aren’t their fault.

Everything Else

What superpower do you wish you had?

Incredible physical strength, kind of like Hulk but with a bit less anger.

What are you most proud of in your career?
I think it’s that my relationship with the students in the school is as strong as it is. Health students are generally encouraged to speak to library staff by their tutors, but they know there are no stupid questions with me.

 

If you're willing to share, tell about a mistake you made on the job.

Oh good grief, there will be plenty I’ve made! But there is one big one I’d share if I knew I was allowed to! Let’s just say it was many, many years ago, and involved money… In the end it was all fine, and there was nothing we couldn’t fix, and that’s the key thing to remember in a subject librarian role: if you make a mistake, it can almost always be fixed and sorted out.

When you aren't at work, what are you likely doing?

I love walking. I live in a beautiful town where the wilds of the moors and the Pennine hills are just on my doorstep. I can make it to work using public transport in 30 mins door to door on a good day, but I can also walk out of my door in the other direction and be in the countryside on foot in 15 minutes. I can’t imagine living anywhere else. I also love making things. Give me some yarn or fibre or some paper and ink/a pile of coloured pens and I’ll be really happy. Having said all that, I also love my PS4...

Who else would you like to see answer these questions?

Jessica Haigh

Bryony tweets at @librarygirlknit.

Interview Post: James D’Annibale

Biographical

Name?

James D’Annibale

Current job?

Currently my title is “Technology & Instructional Design Librarian” but that doesn’t really tell you what I do. I take care of all instructional design, instructional technology, and student/faculty technology training. I’m the administrator for our learning management system and our video hosting platform. In addition to those things, I do instructional coaching, help program directors make sure their online programs are of high quality, do reference work for students as well as helping to plan the library budget alongside our collections management librarian. I also did most of the work to establish our new library website. Now that it’s built, we all co-manage it (which means when someone remembers something needs to be done we take care of it).

How long have you been in the field?

I was a school librarian for 2 years right after my undergraduate work. I completed my Master of Library Science as I was working as a school librarian. I then took jobs outside of librarianship for 3 years, and now have been in my current position for 3 years. So I guess you could say on and off for the past 8 years.

How Do You Work?

What is your office/workspace like?

I’m told my office was a complete afterthought when they built this part of our library. They were near completion when the library director at the time told the construction team we needed another office. So they essentially put up 2 walls and a semi-circle of glass windows, fixed a countertop to one of the walls, and called it an office. I refer to it as my “fishbowl.” The countertop isn’t really the right height a desk should be and the edges are not smooth so it’s kind of uncomfortable to work at. Because of that, I asked my boss if I could get one of those sit/stand things you put on your desk and I like it a lot better. I try my best to be paperless in my work but there are still a bunch of papers all over the place. There’s also A/V equipment sitting out because I often forget to put things away.

How do you organize your days?

I’m ruled by my calendar. I have a Google calendar widget on the home screen of my phone. It’s typically the first thing I look at when I wake up. I like to know the quantity and type of meetings I’ll have before I even get in the shower. A lot of my time is spent in meetings, consultations, or trainings, so it’s important to know what I have going on and what I can possibly fit in between those meetings, etc. Many people I’ve talked to about work-efficiency type of stuff tell me that it’s bad to be ruled by your calendar because you’ll take too many meetings, but I actually book time on my calendar to work on “real” work. For example, today I had 2 hours blocked off on my calendar to work on some video tutorials I owed to some students. If someone wants to schedule a meeting with me, it looks to them that I’m already in a meeting for those 2 hours so I actually get the time to do my work.

Other than that I don’t know that my days are really organized. Every day is different for me based on who needs to work with me. Faculty and students all have their class schedules pretty set so it means I have to be the flexible one.

What do you spend most of your time doing?

Listening to music. I’m serious with that too. I keep Pandora going pretty much all day every day except for when I have a meeting. I have pretty sweet stations centered around Eminem, Macklemore, Jay Z, Taylor Swift, Demi Lovato, a station that mixes Jesus Christ Superstar with Les Miserables, a good Simon & Garfunkel station, and sometimes I even mix in the Disney station I have for my kids.

As far as what I spend my time doing with the music on, it certainly feels like I spend most of my time answering tech questions and making video tutorials because words don’t always do the trick. However when I look at my calendar there’s no way my feeling there is accurate. Most of my time is spent working with faculty to help them teach better (face to face or online).

What is a typical day like for you?

I’m going to split this into 2 sections. You’ll see why when you get to the 2nd part.

Part 1: The Workday

After waking up, I check my calendar for the day, get a shower, get dressed, and make empty threats to ground my children or take away their toys if they don’t get ready for school. At work I make it a point to greet my coworkers right when I get in. Some of my coworkers come in after me and I make sure to say hi to them later on. When I get to my office I check my email. I try my best to answer everything that can be answered in a few words or sentences first. I figure it’s better to get the easy ones out of the way. Then I work on the rest whenever I have time. I’ve found that, especially here, if you answer emails quickly people are super-appreciative because there are other people that take forever to get back to people. Solving problems efficiently makes you look like Superman if everyone else will wait a few days. Besides the email thing, like I said before it’s all about my calendar and no 2 days are the same.

Part 2: Post-workday

I get in the car with my wife (we work together and often drive together) and unless she brings something up, I don’t even think about work. It’s as if there’s an ocean between my house and the college. I used to be a work-a-holic. I used to answer work emails whenever they came in. Then I realized that I’m not an Emergency Room Surgeon and nobody’s going to die or be harmed in any way if I let those emails wait until the next morning. My boss and many other people on campus have my cell phone number and personal email. If it’s super-important, someone will find a way to contact me.

What are you reading right now?

I’ve been working through the “Jack Ryan” series via audiobook for what I’m thinking is the last 2 years I listen when in the car by myself and when I run. I typically run between 20-45 minutes and, with 3 girls and a wife, I’m hardly ever driving by myself - so it’s slow going. I’m currently on Command Authority.

What's the best professional advice you've ever received?

Can I do 2?

First...It is perfectly fine to say “I don’t know right now; give me a few days to think about it.” I know seems to go against what I said earlier with solving problems efficiently, but the right answer after a few days is more efficient than a wrong answer right away.

Second, and more importantly… Family comes first. Never lose sight of your family to get ahead at work.  

What have you found yourself doing at work that you never expected?

I never expected people from other departments (including faculty) would ask me for advice with stuff that has little or nothing to do with my job description or duties. I totally welcome it, as I will help in any way I can, but I definitely didn’t expect it. I usually end up running things by them that I’m wondering about, too. It’s pretty good brainstorming and we’ve all benefited from it.

Inside the Library Studio

What is your favorite word?

PopSeeKo...Google it.

What is your least favorite word?

Printer-Jam

What profession other than your own would you love to attempt?

Some sort of Front Office Executive for the New York Yankees

What profession would you never want to attempt?

Jobs that involve being covered in poop or other undesirable substance. Pretty much anything on that Dirty Jobs show.

Everything Else

What superpower do you wish you had?

Time travel--I’d go forward to get lottery numbers and then come back to win a gazillion dollars. I’d only even have to use the power once. I wouldn’t want to mess with something crazy in the past and end up with dinosaurs still roaming the Earth.

What are you most proud of in your career?I’m most proud of my diversity of talents. This particular job has me doing a bunch of different things on top of the other things I’ve been good at in prior jobs. Each of the 3 prior jobs I’ve had have been very different from one another. School librarian, classroom teacher/football coach, project manager at a manufacturing firm, and now the litany of things I do as a librarian. I think it’s cool that I’ve been able to have so many experiences.

If you're willing to share, tell about a mistake you made on the job.

This was back when I was a project manager at a manufacturing firm. I took a meeting with a client’s architect and some others at a time when my engineering and design team was unavailable. I thought I could handle it myself and I was wrong. I ended up wasting everyone’s time in the meeting. It’s kind of like I said before with saying “I don’t know”. It’s better to delay the meeting than it is to have a meeting with the wrong people.

When you aren't at work, what are you likely doing?

There’s really only 3 possibilities. I’m either doing something with my kids, bringing my kids to their activities like dance and soccer, or playing Playstation. After the kids go to bed you can find me working on my MBA coursework. I have 2 more semesters.

Who else would you like to see answer these questions?

Scott DiMarco, Mansfield University of Pennsylvania. He’s one of the best men I know and I think we could all learn a lot from him.

He tweets sparingly at @James_Dann2006.