[Genealib] Genealogy Librarian Job Descriptions

[Nancy Maxwell]

Dana, as the one genealogy librarian and only person who's here Monday through Friday, programming time varies. My two "staple" programs are the beginning and intermediate workshops I do once a year. I offer to do programs as needed for our local genealogy group that meets once a month, year round. I also do programs by request, the number of which can vary greatly from one year to the next. At this time I've done or will be doing, eight programs in 2007-2008.

I'm responsible for materials purchases for the genealogy department that include books and CDs. Until a couple of years ago, I bought microfilm - mostly U. S. census - but that changed dramatically as more census went digital. Like most of us, my main job is working with patrons; a close second is materials purchase. At this time I do not to any archiving or preservation work.

I think programming is an important aspect of our work. It helps keep us in the public eye, and the more people we reach, the wider our service population can grow. I get many patrons in person or on the phone who say they were urged by another user or program attendee to check us out.

Regards,


Nancy Maxwell, Genealogy Librarian
Frances Pittman Malcolm Genealogy Room
Grapevine Public Library
1201 Municipal Way
Grapevine, TX 76051
Voice: 817-410-3429
Fax: 817-410-3084
E-mail: nmaxwell at grapevinetexas.gov
 
"Why waste your money looking up your family tree? Just go into politics and your opponents will do it for you."   ~ attributed to Mark Twain


>>> "Dana Lucisano" <dlucisano at bronsonlibrary.org> 5/16/2008 9:38 AM >>>
Thank you to all who have responded thus far to my inquiry about how you spend your time when you wear the hat called "Genealogy Librarian" at the institutions where you work.  A few people who responded to me off-line wondered why I wanted this information.  The Director of my library is thinking about sponsoring me for training I would need in order to do preservation and, possibly, archiving.  He asked me to find out what my counterparts at other libraries do, which is why I needed your help.  From the responses that have come in thus far, it is clear that we spend most of our time (40 to 60%) responding to patron inquiries.  After that, the next thing we tend to have in common is reponsibility for preparation of finding aids (about 10 to 15% of our time).  One person said that 55% of her time is spent in preservation because she is the library's digitization specialist.  Another person said that her library has a lot of volunteer participation and that she spends 5 to 10% of her time training volunteers.  Planning seems to be a low priority for many of us.  What about programming?  So far, no one has mentioned that.
 
Dana Lucisano
Genealogy and Local History Librarian
Silas Bronson Library
267 Grand St.
Waterbury, CT 06702
 
(203) 574-8225