Other Duties As Assigned

This recognizes a person(s) who is ready and willing to assume additional duties or responsibilities. Examples include:

• Effectively juggling additional duties and multiple priorities in addition to normal job responsibilities;
• Helping to facilitate change, encouraging others to adapt to the changing situations, and maintaining a positive attitude;
• Demonstrating flexibility and consideration of others in thought or action, and
• Coping successfully with a unique or emergency situation.

Carol Wheeler - Government Documents Processing

Carol Wheeler has always been one to step up to the plate when there is an emergency, such as the 2003 fire that destroyed many of the government documents in our collection, or in a unique situation such as the recent retirement of the long-time Regional Depository Librarian Susan Field.  Although not everyone is aware of it, the recovery process following the fire still continues, and Carol regularly monitors offers lists from other libraries in ongoing efforts to replace material lost in the fire. When Susan Field left us at the beginning of February 2008, Carol took over many of her duties in addition to her already full-time load managing the Government Documents Processing department.  She not only sought information on procedures already in place for handling offers lists from the selective U.S depository libraries in Georgia, but after she was familiar with what had been done up to that point, she suggested several major changes to these procedures that not only streamlined the process of requesting material that we lacked, but also made our requests much more accurate in meeting actual gaps in the collection.

After a new Regional Depository Librarian was appointed, Carol met with her to explain what was involved in the position, and then continued to work closely with the offers lists while the new RDL was learning what needed to be done.  A new staff position is expected to be added to the department to assist the RDL beginning in the new fiscal year, and Carol will undoubtedly be willing to do much of the preparation for and training of the new staff person.

Carol not only steps up to the plate, she goes on to hit home runs, not in a sudden burst of glory as happens in a baseball game, but rather through steady and consistent work, accompanied by always logical and at times brilliant thinking through of problems and their solutions.  She is careful to consider both logistical and human parameters, and is always aware of others' feelings and needs in making her decisions.  No matter how busy she may be, she is approachable and happy to answer questions from her own and from other departments.  

Although these qualities could just as easily have been mentioned in a nomination for "Supervisor of the Year", Carol's willingness to go beyond her normal duties whenever necessary for the good of the Libraries, and her extraordinary capabilities both for faithful, honest work and clear thinking in unique or emergency situations, accompanied by a positive attitude towards these situations that inspires others, make her more than qualified for the "Other Duties as Assigned" Award.

Ken Henslee - Cataloging

Although Ken's primary responsibility in the Database Maintenance Section (Cataloging Department) is project management and training, he manages to fit in a wide variety of "other duties" from assisting with the Libraries' Podcast Group to serving as a database maintenance liaison to the staff on the Griffin campus, CML, and the Owens Library, to producing (and starring!) in the Cataloging Department's Asset Award movie '07.

Given Ken's prior experience in copy cataloging and with music materials, Ken continues to do maintenance work for music materials and also assists in copy cataloging monographs through special projects routed to him, or as identified through DBM projects.

Ken is able to effectively juggle all of these other duties alongside with his daily work, with no backlogs or delays. He is amazingly efficient and well versed in prioritizing, ensuring that projects continue on schedule and that all project members have necessary training.

Main Library Shelving - Paul Van Wicklan, Jeffrey Schmidt, Tyler Whitfield, Crystal Lee, Rachel Nabulsi

The name of this award is Other Duties As Assigned and I can’t think of another Department that this describes more than the Main Library Shelving Department.  A Shelver's primary day to day duty is making sure that all Main Library books are in their correct order in the Stacks, but if anyone needs help, Shelving's motto is, “We Will Assist You!”  When Reference material needed to be moved out of the 1st Floor Reading Room, Shelving was there to help ship the items to the Repository.  When the old 1st Floor book shelves needed to be replaced with the new Periodicals shelves, the Shelving Department was there to help break down the shelving for the cleaning crew. This year, Shelving Department also helped relocate all of the Chemical Abstracts from the Science Library to the Repository.  Last, but definitely not least, in May, the Shelving Department assisted in the preparation of the Main Library for the Arch Committee Meetings, by transforming the 1st Floor Reading Room into a miniature version of the Main Library. Main Library Shelving is second to none when it comes to going above and beyond the call of duty and I hope that they can be recognized for all of their hard work this year!