by Hee Jung Lee on 2021-06-06T20:00:00-04:00 | 0 Comments
LIBRARY NEWSLETTER
Special Edition
Issue 3 ‖ June, 2021
Dear Readers,
In May, the Library welcomed two new temporary members who have been helping us with our ongoing collection assessment efforts. With the arrival of these new staff members being greatly anticipated, put together with the efforts of our existing library staff, we have seen tremendous progress in our assessment and deselection program.
Despite the fact that we have been working with minimal staff, we have been tirelessly working to provide optimal research experience to the MFA community and beyond. I am proud to be working alongside these immensely professional and mission-oriented individuals, without whom none of this would have been possible.
I’d like to take this moment to welcome the new staff, while also expressing our deep appreciation for our original team whose determination and undeterred enthusiasm we are extremely grateful for. I’d also like to recognize their unparalleled ability to adapt to all the changes the library has been undergoing at the present.
Sincerely,
Hee Jung Lee,
Head Librarian
WEEDING PROGRESS
Just in time for 2021's Art and Bloom, the Library stacks also bloomed with bright colored slips, indicating duplicative titles. The Library staff has been identifying overlap between the Main Library and the curatorial departmental libraries by visiting each location and searching the stacks.
So far, more than 4,000 titles have been identified as the duplicates (and sometimes triplicates and quadriplicates). These confirmed duplicates were then flagged in the main library to safely remove without compromising the titles.
All in all, as of June 4th, we deselected 434 serial titles and 506 duplicative titles, approximately 200 linear feet worth of monographs and serials.
LIBRARY NEWS
TEAM EFFORTS
The library is a small department, consisting of four full-time staff and a few part-time staff. Currently, one of the four full-time positions is vacant, making our full-time staff 25% less than the usual times. Considering that the library manages half a million items scattered in a dozen different locations, one can easily guess that our staff is overwhelmed by the amount of work they have.
Our current staff includes (in alphabetical order):
Jordan Barnes (Library Assistant, Acquisitoins and Inter-librayr loan), Lee-Anne Famolare (Project Cataloger, Part-Time), Hee Jung Lee (Head Librarian), Paul McAlpine (Library Assistant, Public Services and Stacks Management), Jessica Myers (Serials Assistant, Part Time) and Marie Oedel (Conservator, Books, Part Time).
Since the beginning of the collection assessment project, each of us has been taking on extra work for this big undertaking. All full-time librarians have been working both online and on-site to inventory collection and check the stacks to ensure items are accounted for as reflected in our online catalogs; creating lists for our items to be located, reviewed, and removed; examining physical conditions to consider replacement and/or removal. Our staff is working on all of the previously mentioned responsibilities, while also offering our normal services.
As the project progressed, more in-depth analysis of the collection continued. Marie’s expertise in conservation has been integral in assessing the collection’s condition in anticipation of its relocation. Through a thorough survey of the collection, Marie has identified certain items that need specific packaging or treatment to protect them during the moving process and ensure their safe arrival. She also spearheaded the Special Collections inventorying project in collaboration with our stacks guru, Paul, so that we know every single item has been examined physically and accounted for before the relocation. Jessica and Jordan have been busy reviewing periodicals collection, which is one of our areas of focus for the first phase of the collection assessment. Together as a team, they identified over a thousand continuing resources to be reviewed, a long and laborious process, which they have accomplished with incredible efficiency and speed. After completing the Main Library serials, Jordan has continued the serials review in curatorial departments, while Jessica is weeding out serials in the Main Library.
Lee-Anne rejoined our team recently to fill the much-needed support in our cataloging, the position of which has been vacant for over a year. Through her expertise, she was able to catalog all the books that have accumulated over the past year during the Covid closure. Thanks to her tremendous effort, these books have once again found a home in the stacks throughout the museum and consequently allowed and empowered both users and librarians to seamlessly find and use our resources.
Last but not least, to the best of his abilities, Paul has been working on-site to maintain the library stacks both in the Main Library and the curatorial department libraries to make sure as many items are where they should be before the relocation, while attentively responding to internal and external reference requests. He has also been arranging research appointments for the MFA staff, considering all the Covid-19 restrictions that have been in place.
NEW FACES
Lisa Fackler, the new Project Coordinator will manage the system side of the work and maintain documentation of the weeded materials. Lisa joined with a strong background in cataloging and the experience in Museum environment. Caleb Simone is the new temporary Library Assistant. Caleb is currently enrolled in Simmons' School of Library and Information Science pursuing a dual degree in History and Archives Management. In collaboration with Lisa and the rest of the staff, he processes weeded books, while researching holdings for the next phase of the weeding.
Both Lisa and Caleb will stay for the duration of the critical moment of the library's collection revamping. Books and serials are now being removed from the shelves, taken out from the system, and appropriately processed to be sold, donated, and recycled. With a welcome addition of the two part-time staffers, Lisa and Caleb, we are able to dive deeper into the collection analysis, while still providing service to our users.
Any Questions? Please connect with Head Librarian, Hee Jung Lee at hlee@mfa.org with any questions or thoughts.
For a full description of the weeding program, please refer to the previous month's newsletter or library webpage.
SERVICE UPDATE
At this time, some parts of the library are closed due to safety concerns. Please feel free to reach out if you have any questions or concerns about the availability of the materials in the inaccessible stacks
Please check out our newly revamped website. The library aims to transition to using this page as our main access point. Furthermore, the MFA users are able to request items using the google form on the website (without VPN access).
We will continue to offer interlibrary loan, research appointments and delivery services.
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