[Genealib] Genealogy Librarian Job Descriptions

[Libby Feil]

I'm the manager of Local & Family History Services at the St. Joseph 
Co. PL in South Bend, Indiana.  (Used to be the Local History & 
Genealogy Room, but we changed the name to forestall any confusion 
over the meaning of "genealogy."  Also, we tired of people asking for 
the geology, geography, genetics, or gynecology department!)  At the 
moment our department has four staff (3 FT, 1 PT)--two MLS librarians 
(FT) and two paraprofessionals (FT, PT).  We also have 10 wonderful 
volunteers.

As a manager, I spend about 33% of my time on management 
stuff--meetings, reports, statistics, evaluations, committees, 
helping staff and volunteers, scheduling, etc.

In general, I would say that the majority of the rest of my time, and 
that of my co-workers, is taken up with helping patrons in person, on 
the phone, by e-mail, or by IM.  Our volunteers help us with patrons' 
questions too.  However, we also do many other projects:  creating 
finding aids and resource guides, digitizing rare and fragile 
material, writing how-to articles for our website 
(http://www.sjcpl.org/localhistory/), teaching classes, making 
presentations to community groups, hosting tour groups, searching for 
and purchasing new materials, deselecting outdated materials, keeping 
up with the professional literature, attending training, and more. 
We are certainly never bored!

If you'd like any details about any of this, feel free to write to me directly.

>  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.
>  Dana Lucisano
-- 

Elizabeth "Libby" Feil, Librarian
MA, MLS
Manager, Local & Family History Services
St. Joseph County Public Library
304 So. Main Street
South Bend, IN  46601

574-282-4621
l.feil at sjcpl.org
AIM:  sjcpllibby
http://www.libraryforlife.org/localhistory/
To subscribe to our monthly Local & Family History
e-newsletter, email me at l.feil at sjcpl.org


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County research!