Best Supporting Player
This award recognizes a person who remains steadfast their commitment to the Libraries' mission and can be relied upon to contribute to their department and benefit their colleagues. Some of the ways the nominee might do this include:
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Dependability
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Fostering good will/positive interactions
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Boosting morale of colleagues
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Enthusiasm for job/work
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Exemplary “team” spirit
Bringing the best of him/herself to the workplace and encouraging the same in others
Paul Van Wicklen, Access Services
Paul Van Wiklen and his shelving staff have improved the stacks in the Main Library and the Repository immeasurably. Patron satisfaction with the Libraries is often focused on whether or not they can find the books they go into the stacks to hunt for. When the sorting shelves are full and it takes many days for materials to be re-shelved users become frustrated. Since the Libraries do not maintain service desks in the stacks it is important that the stacks be as easy to navigate as possible.
Shifting on very tight floors is beginning to open up areas so that overflow materials can be integrated, such as on the 3rd floor. Progress is being made with the pesky supersized material in the music collection. Student shelvers routinely check the items they are going to place on sorting shelves to make sure they were discharged. The sorting shelves, themselves, have never looked so good even at the close of the semesters. At last all of the theses and dissertations are in the same place so Reference staff members don’t have to remind themselves which years are stored at Main and which at the Repo.
Shelving is a thankless task, but critical to our success as a library. Paul’s work is making significant strides in achieving the goal of providing easy to use stack and Repository collections.
Jasmine Rizer, Cataloging
Jasmine is an excellent example of good internal customer service -- polite, caring, professional, and always willing to stop her work to help.
She manages the Marking Unit which is responsible for labeling materials for the Libraries. In the previous year, approximately 40,000 things (books, DVDs, Audio CDs, serials, etc.) were processed by this Unit consisting of two staff and 2 student workers. Although it is not a glamorous job, it is an essential and often underappreciated one.
Jasmine not only processes material, but is responsible for the day to day management of the unit: training student workers and cross training the Maintenance Unit staff; maintaining all personnel, statistics and procedural files for the Unit; answering and/or routing a variety of questions from staff within the Libraries; and last but certainly not least, ensuring that all material is routed to its appropriate location. She does all of this with grace, professionalism, and an air of effortlessness that is truly amazing.
Despite the extraordinary amount of work this Unit does, Jasmine keeps things flowing smoothly and is exceedingly helpful in any given situation. As the Marking Unit is located in a central hub between Cataloging and Acquisitions, Marking receives a wide variety of questions (even the occasional lost student looking for classroom B2!) Jasmine is always helpful, always polite, and does her best to get the answer. If she can not answer a particular question herself, she will find someone who can.
Jasmine is unfailing in her diligence to the work her Unit does and her commitment to the Libraries.
Mary Willoughby, DLG
Mary is always involved with campus/civic charities, a kind soul through and through. She is always pleasant, brings the best of herself to the work, and with her fine sense of humor makes all of our lives jollier. She is a tremendous asset to our work area. Mary is one of those rare people who, simply by doing what she does, makes me want to be a better person.
Ben McCormick, DLG
Ben's photographic expertise is the backbone in fulfilling both Imaging Services and the DLG's ongoing service missions. His skill as a technician ensures that high-quality work is always produced, and that our patrons and colleagues are consistently pleased with the results.
His conscientiousness, flexibility and professionalism are all tremendous assets, and it is clear that the folks that work regularly with him in DLG, Hargrett, University Archives, and Systems have all come to appreciate these qualities of his as a co-worker.
What others might not know is that Ben is HILARIOUS, and will no doubt zing you!
Merdelle Stepp, Access Services
Although Merdelle Stepp is not in my department of the Libraries, I would guess that there are few people who have not benefited from her presence here. Merdelle has been working here a long time, but is not the "retiring" type; she has made the Libraries her life and her love, and we are all the better for it. She has a kind word for everyone and is generous with little presents that recognize others. She truly cares about others.
However, just as important as her personal contributions to the Libraries are her professional contributions. I regularly have contact with her in my department as she goes on her mission to find books that are missing. Undaunted by having to search for the same book multiple times before it can be declared lost, Merdelle's persistence often does result in success and a happy patron. If Merdelle can't find it.. it isn't here!
Perhaps not everyone knows that Merdelle lends her skills and love of the library profession to her church library as well, and there also she is a steady and reliable presence, checking out books and performing other duties as well each Sunday. I don't know what we would do without Merdelle, and I hope that she is here forever! She is truly an asset to the Libraries.
Betty Mayweather, Business Services
Betty Mayweather's dependability is more than an asset as she handles the payroll, it is a necessity! Yet with all the responsibility she carries to make sure that people in the Libraries get paid, and with the attention to detail that she must give, she is always cheerful, polite, and ready to encourage her colleagues. Betty stays on top of all the changes that take place in the way the payroll is handled, and lets people know what is expected. She is quick to get back to me whenever I have a question. When there are special holiday deadlines, she organizes and provides us with the information necessary to meet them, and she makes sure that everyone gets the payroll in on time. Recently the leave form was changed so that it was no longer required to include the complete social security number. Even though our continuing to include the whole number would save Betty quite a bit of time in her work, she understood that some people do not wish to divulge this information, and sent an e-mail to the Libraries telling us that we had this choice and could complete the leave form with or without our socials. Quick to thank others for their help, Betty certainly deserves our thanks and gratitude for the care with which she does her work each week.
Mary Willoughby, DLG
Mary Willoughby consistently works to create a pleasant and productive work environment. She regularly engages her co-workers in projects and fosters effective collaboration. She is easy to work with, flexible, and practical in technological matters. She is always available to answer questions and happy to help and is a reliable source of technological advice and ideas.
Matthew Hannum, DLG
Matt is continually finding ways to boost morale and improve production. He is a patient supervisor of student assistants, addressing workflow issues with an open mind and a healthy sense of humor. Matt's congeniality makes him approachable to all who collaborate with him, which facilitates information exchanges that move projects forward.
Jason Hasty (Hargrett) & Julie Dyles (Collection Development)
Jason Hasty and Julie Dyles embody the phrase “people who make a difference”. Their work these past two years as the Library Staff Association President and Vice President has truly made a difference in the life of the University of Georgia Libraries staff. Most assuredly they have not done it alone, but I think that even those other people most heavily involved in LSA would agree that they have been the driving force.
In an organization as large and diverse as the Libraries, it is difficult to promote activities, concerns, resources or programs that will give people a sense of involvement and community. We are in a day an age where organizational commitment and a sense of loyalty and “togetherness” is not as expected as it was twenty years ago; even 10 years ago. People are less willing to conceptualize programs and activities much less actually carry them out.
Through the efforts of Jason and Julie, LSA has become a vital energy in the life of the Libraries, resulting in a thriving sense of workplace community. For those of us who have been at the Libraries a number of years, there is a distinct change that has been created. It feels more like it did twenty years ago when people actually looked forward to parties and activities and wanted to be involved, rather than keeping their involvement and perspective more narrowly focused in their units or departments. This is a very special change.
In addition to bringing fresh ideas to the traditional LSA events and fundraisers, Jason and Julie have made great strides in advancing the mission of LSA by introducing a variety of new activities. Here are a few examples of their work and ingenuity:
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Updating of the LSA Constitution
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Revision of the LSA website and the development of the LSA newsletter http://www.libs.uga.edu/lsa/lsaspring2007.pdf
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Development of the Libraries (winning!) Bowling Team
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Taking on a partnership with Libraries Administration for the planning and executive of the All Staff Party (perhaps forever to be the Libraries Spring Break Party?)
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Formation of the Libraries Book Club
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Creation of an LSA “meet and greet” Coffee for new employees
Finally, for the LSA committee members, Jason and Julie are a continual source of energy and support. They are deeply involved in all the many LSA-sponsored projects and always willing to help out, run another errand, or lend an extra hand in the run up to an event. Their enthusiasm, organization, professionalism, and dedication to making LSA meaningful and fun, both to members of the committee and to the Libraries as a whole, is an inspiration and serves as a wonderful example of good will and team spirit.
Katha Massey, DLG
With the doubling of my unit’s size over the past year, I depended more strongly on Katha than ever before. In past years, she’s served as the DLG's subject analysis guru training our new catalogers and interns. With the addition of two new professional descriptive staff, I depend on Katha to be another go-to person. I rely heavily on Katha for her advice and for her ability to nurture new catalogers. She creates a positive, intellectual environment and trains us all how to think critically about description.
In addition to her supporting role as subject headings queen, Katha jumps into any project that’s required. Even though she works part-time, she juggles multiple projects and keeps some of our “back-burner” work going. She is committed to excellence in our products and has a real passion for immersing herself in the historical milieu of whichever project she happens to be working on.
Anne Marie Hamilton-Brehm, DLG
Year after year, Anne Marie continues to effectively and efficiently manage the student workforce in the metadata unit. Over the past year, she has worked to improve our student workforce's efficiency by meeting with them more regularly and by documenting procedures on the departmental wiki. In addition,Anne continues to monitor our student budget carefully and has allowed us to maximize our spending. As in past years, she strives to improve her management skills by taking full advantage of managerial programs offered through Training and Development and through the library's S.T.E.P. program. She has also successfully completed her first semester of the University of Alabama's distance M.L.I.S. program.
This year, Anne Marie assumed responsibility for the creation of DJVu and layered PDF versions of our Georgia Books. As part of the process, she has evaluated existing images for the Georgia Books, taken measures to improve them, and has created the needed files. Her exacting attention-to-detail has been imperative in this process. Now, over 250 historic books about Georgia are now available to the public.
Anne Marie has begun to balance her service to the department with greater involvement in the library through her service on the ASSET Awards committee. In addition, she successfully completed her first two semesters of the University of Alabama’s distance library and information science program.
Tim Peacock, Systems
Tim Peaock is one of the finest leaders this University has ever produced. He has taught by example that any conversation, no matter how insignificant at the time, should be documented. He leadership skills are teaching and helpful in nature. He maked a fine addition to the NACS department in the Libraries.
Amy Watts (Reference), Phil Fitzpatrick (Systems)
Who keeps the Libraries' Blog humming along? Who keeps the Libraries website free of dead links? Who helps WAG (Web Advisory Group) test cool new features? Who helps out in millions of little ways?
In addition to the numerous other duties that each undertake on a daily basis, Phil and Amy assist WAG (Web Advisory Group) in many different ways. Spam in the Libraries Blog? Not on Amy and Phil's watch. RSS feed on the front page of the Libraries website? Thanks to Phil. Dead link free website? Amy works with each departmental Web Editor in ensuring that we are dead link free.
Although they each work individually, they are each very much critical Supporting Players for WAG.