EXTRA MILE/ABOVE AND BEYOND AWARD:

This award recognizes a person or group frequently and consistently working outside normal expectations to make a difference within the Libraries, while maintaining quality service or outstanding production levels with a positive and professional attitude. Examples include:

NOMINEES:

Shannon Bennett and Brian Wilson

Shannon and Brian are often commended for going "above and beyond" - and rightfully so. Their work makes life at the MLC run smoothly for the Libraries and our other partners, and the two contribute to the successful execution of all kinds of projects that promote the Libraries to alumni, students, and parents.

The project I would like to highlight is Art: MLC, a program that solicits artwork from UGA undergrad and grad students that is then displayed in the MLC. Contemporary artists love to show their work in the MLC -- the architecture and the busy student life make it an excellent venue to play off of in front of a large audience. Often, the materials and methods these artists choose are unconventional and go far beyond the simple hanging of a painting. Shannon and Brian have been essential in making it possible for us to present large-scale and otherwise complicated installation artwork and performance art. Their patience with the artists, creativity and diplomacy in overcoming logistical obstacles, and general good humor about the whole process has been amazing. Among other projects, they have worked with artists ironing on the floor during class changes, digging in the terrace to install huge marble pieces reclaimed from the Main Library bathrooms, and have scaled the 4th floor rotunda to help with a light-based work that turned the dome bright blue. Their work and helpful attitude have made it possible for the Libraries to support student art on campus in a very visible way by bringing provocative new work to an audience that might not otherwise have the opportunity to see what contemporary student artists are working on at UGA.

Craig Breaden

Through initiative, creativity, and meeting Russell Library needs, Craig Breaden not only has established a successful, innovative audio and video services preservation lab while managing the department's media assets effectively and efficiently but also moved the department toward self-sufficiency in oral history production. As Craig spearheaded the department's evolving program for oral history, his original media assets position evolved to a departmental unit head position for Media and Oral History.

To be effective in this leadership position, Craig continually improves his knowledge and skills to remain consonant with changing technology, standards, and practices within his field. He has built positive relationships with co-workers and those in other departments, both within and without the Libraries, as well as other institutions. He also is working directly with donors and collection development. In response to a faculty query about video captioning of some of the Russell's Foot Soldier Project films for hearing impaired students, Craig researched various products in relation to department costs to provide improved access to these materials. He worked extensively with Quicktime and SMIL technologies to produce captioned videos from transcript/video combinations. Now, many archival media materials will be available to these students for the first time. Moving into curatorial work and donor relations, Craig established an oral history partnership with Bob Short in the process of collecting Short's media materials that date from the 1950s. Now, the two are producing oral history interviews that fulfill the Russell's political party oral history project and benefit both this library and Young Harris College by producing an outstanding research resource. In 2008, their collaboration yielded 43 interviews for the Reflections on Georgia Politics Oral History Series. The interviews have proven an excellent platform for expanding knowledge about the Russell and its programs, cultivating stakeholders and improving donor relations, and identifying prospective collections.

Craig has shown constant initiative in maximizing his resources, or those he can acquire, to promote the oral history program and complete the work of his unit. He collaborated with co-worker Abby Griner to create a streaming video presence for oral histories on the Russell website, and he digitized and prepared the Oral History Documentary Collection for online presentation. To provide online access to audiovisual holdings as well, he digitized Bob Short's donation of films of Marvin Griffin's 1962 campaign stump speeches. He also developed a Russell Audiovisual Blog and continued to work with staff from other departments on Libraries podcasting. Participating in the planning committee for the department's "Weaving the Threads of Justice: The Highlander Center Exhibit and Events Series," he provided ideas and insight for using materials from the AV holdings. Some of these holdings he was able to highlight publicly by presenting in the program event, "Seeing Red in Black: White Southern Leaders Fight Desegregation." Taking into account the budget situation, he partnered with the Media Archive to increase purchasing and processing power and to share available resources by ordering supplies together, sharing equipment, and cross-training.

One of Craig's most frustrating situations has been the lack of personnel to assist with the workload and make the access to more oral history and the media materials available to patrons. He created a workflow for processing the interviews and used some student help as well as commercial transcription services for making the interviews available more quickly. Neither form of assistance proved satisfactory. As the project grew, however, the department confirmed the urgent need for a full-time oral historian, since the oral history requires constant attention because of its Development aspect and the schedules of outside parties. The Russell and Development have raised $50,000 for the program and have proposals tapping other sources. With this amount in hand, the department speculated the hiring of a two or three-year project assistant now, continuing the program at the current level, and seeking additional funds to make the position permanent. In the meantime, Craig looked for creative solutions. Considering grant possibilities, he pursued a more formal and contributing partnership from Young Harris by contacting the college president. He now has the very real prospect for a financial investment in the program over two years. Having Christian Lopez join him to film several events for Development in 2008, however, presented his best opportunity, and by October, Craig started thinking outside the box. Christian wanted to work with oral history and media, and Craig desperately needed help. A solution evolved. They collaborated and presented a plan to the heads of their departments. Science Reference supported Christian's chance to move forward in his career, and the Russell recognized that the prospect of having Christian sooner was critical to the oral history program; with compromises and creativity, everything came together. Christian joins the Russell staff in July 2009.

Craig Breaden appreciates the complexities of his position--it is a challenging one and not for the novice. He has become attune to the value of Development and possibilities for other external funding sources in the process of going the Extra Mile to produce a successful program for the Russell. He has consistently demonstrated impressive organizational ability, initiative and productivity, and mature yet creative judgment in methodology choices and collaborative planning. Craig Breaden's leadership to take his work Above and Beyond what could be routine is the exceptional contribution to the Russell Library and the University Libraries.

Diana Hartle

I nominate Diana Hartle for her energetic stewardship of the Athens Big Read this past fall. The Libraries is fortunate to have such a talented spokesperson who is willing to work with the larger community to promote the joys of reading and learning about another culture. When she sought funding during the planning stages and when she facilitated each of the nearly three dozen events, Diana demonstrated exceptional skill in team building, organization, and marketing.

This is the first time the Libraries has collaborated with the Regional Library, the Georgia Museum of Art, and the Lyndon House on a major public event. It is certainly the first time we shared sponsorship of an event that stretched over six weeks. At a time of budgetary stringency it is encouraging to see what can be done to forge community relationships through volunteer efforts and seed money from the National Endowment of the Arts. Diana is to be commended for her extraordinary creativity in planning and facilitating the many events that formed the diverse calendar of events.

Regina House

Regina collects journal and database usage statistics as part of her regular duties, but in this year of shrinking materials budgets she has gone above and beyond in tracking down the information vital to determining what should be cut, and what we can't afford to let go. She collated and provided the data that was used to create the journal cancellation database, so her contribution is invaluable in ensuring that the UGA Libraries continues to meet the research needs of its users in a cost-effective manner.

Will Langford (#1)

Throughout the past year, Will Langford has lent a hand on numerous occasions to help the Brown Media Archives and Peabody Awards Collection, and we are deeply grateful.

Will readily and cheerfully has helped us move empty boxes, fill them, and move them again. His good cheer persisted even as we climbed unlit, unventilated stairs to a dusty, hot, low-ceilinged attic over and over and over again. Not only that, but at the end he thanked US.

Will's can-do attitude, good cheer, and steady work ethic make him the best possible kind of colleague. We are all lucky to work with Will.

Will Langford (#2)

Will Langford is the epitome of the Extra Mile/Above and Beyond Award. He is happy to go anywhere and will do just about anything to pick up gifts items for the Libraries' collections. His response to requests to go pick up gifts, no matter how large or small or how far he has to travel, is always the same: "Wow, that will make a great addition to the collection."

One of his recent trips is the perfect example of why Will is deserving of this award. In May, 2009 he and his assistant Carrie Tatum spent 3 days at the University of Tennessee-Knoxville packing and loading microfiche to replace a large set of government documents microfiche that got damaged or destroyed in the 2003 fire. According to Will "Operation Rolling Thunder" was a huge success - he and Carrie returned with over 200 boxes of microfiche weighing a total of nearly 3 and a half TONS. When first asked to take on this enormous project, Will unhesitatingly and enthusiastically jumped right in and started making plans. Working with the staff at UTK as well as UGA he figured out the best and most efficient way to pack the collection so it stayed in order without overloading the boxes. Thanks to his preparation and hard work the fiche arrived on time in neatly packed, well-labeled boxes; much to Wills stated relief none of the drawers or boxes of fiche were spilled in the process. Typical of Will, he made a point of publicly thanking everyone at both UTK and UGA who helped make the project a success.

Wills positive attitude and willingness to go that extra mile make him an absolute pleasure to work with. His love of the Libraries is apparent in everything he does; we are very fortunate to have him on staff. No matter how outrageous the request or complex the project, you can always count on Will to get the job done.

John Prechtel

Where would we be without John Prechtel? Difficult census question? Refer it to John. Impossible government documents question? Call John. Business data query? John's your guy. We run out of his business cards more frequently than any other card we hand out at the reference desk.

John has, for many years, been a valuable resource for data, census, and government document questions. However, in 2008, he also assumed the not inconsiderable task of taking over business reference responsibilities from the retiring John Campbell. Both Johns were neck-in-neck for most patron conferences in 2008, now John Prechtel's workload will most likely double. Throughout it all, John Prechtel maintains his cheerful can-do attitude.

The main reason to nominate him in the "Above and Beyond" category is because there's not one called "Indispensable."

Diane Trap

Diane goes the extra mile with her design work, assisting her colleagues with their projects

Susan Vandale

I would like to nominate Susan Vandale for the Extra Mile/Above and Beyond Award for the year 2009. This year, Susan has gone beyond her normal duties to really make a difference at the University of Georgia Libraries.

Susan' s job is an original cataloger. The books no one else wants to catalog come in and we catalog them. Simple enough, right? However, this year the Monographs Original Cataloging section took on several projects that weren' t part of the normal cataloging duties we were used to. No matter what the project was, no matter how excited (oozing with sarcasm) Susan was, she took on the project and made the best of it.

For example, Monographs Original Cataloging was asked to catalog the Hargrett Manuscript Collections that were not included in the GAMMA Project. While this isn' t always the most exciting task, Susan manages to find humor in the items she catalogs. Susan has cataloged such intriguing items as a sketch of an unknown man by an unknown artist, Ku Klux Klan items including recommendation card and an actual hood, to a Confederate sword. (We have asked that she be kept away from the swords in Hargrett especially on bad days but thats for her protection as well as the University as a whole.)

Another example of Susan' s willingness to go the extra mile has been her treatment of the B. G. Martin gift collection. This collection is made up of mostly Arabic language materials and the items that come through Monographs Original Cataloging are not pretty. Susan frequently pulls these from the shelves and toils through them. She has also expressed an interest in taking Arabic language classes to try to help figure out what some of these books are.

Susan has also jumped head first into authority work. She has been setting up names since she first arrived in the Cataloging Department even though she wasn' t expected to until after NACO training. Through an internship during library school, Susan developed a solid background in authority work and has continued to enhance OCLC and our local catalog with her work. For a first year cataloger, this is well above and beyond anyones expectations.

Probably the most notable aspect of Susans qualifications for this award has been her co-leadership of the ASSET Award Committee. In a year when budgets were extremely tight, Susan and the ASSET Committee found new, innovative, and profitable ways to raise funds to make sure the ceremonies went on, instead of accepting the financial situation they had. Susan spent a lot of time outside of the Libraries working on ASSET fundraising and her efforts have paid off.

I am proud to nominate Susan Vandale for the Extra Mile/Above and Beyond Award this year. In her first year at UGA, she has taken on much more than anyone could have expected and has done an incredible job making all of it work.

Mary Willoughby

Mary Willoughby is the definition of a "go-to" person. I owe most of my workplace knowledge to the time she took to teach me the methods involved in creating a digital archive. She has always been willing to take time away from her own work to make sure that I am successful at mine. I'm not the only one who's work is better because of her. She contributes to the progress of just about everyone in the Digital Library of Georgia. We refer to her as our "utility infielder" because she can play any position and often does.

Georgia Room Inventory Project Group

I am nominating Jamie Jedlicka, Bart Lemahieu, and Skip Hulett in the Extra Mile Above and Beyond category. I would like to recognize their initiative and participation in the Georgia Room inventory project. Jamie has been working on Georgia Room monographs for about a year and a half; Bart has been working on the serials for about a year. They both worked out their procedures with Skip, which is why I am including him, for his willingness to discuss. And discuss. And discuss. Also he has been flexible with the fact that Bart and Jamie have worked out different methods and procedures.

The project currently involves barcoding items in the Georgia Room, and (here's the difficult part) making sure the GIL records describing them are accurate. In many cases there is no record in GIL at all. Serials have the added layer of making sure the holdings on the holdings record reflect what is on the shelf, and monographs have difficulties of their own. I don't even understand them all, since I am a serials person. I know it has something to do with whether or not the record describes the correct edition of the piece, which it often does not.

I applaud Bart and Jamie's willingness to take on a difficult project--they were both relatively new to cataloging when they began. The learning curve was steep indeed but nobody ran screaming away. They persevered and recently have been barcoding roughly 1,500 items monthly. It takes dedication and a good attitude to accomplish what they have accomplished.

Georgia Room Inventory Project #2)

The Georgia Room Inventory is a huge project involving multiple departments and many staff to verify holdings, barcode, and inventory the Georgia Room collection in preparation for the move to the Special Collections building. Call numbers have been corrected, uncataloged material has been cataloged, items have been barcoded, and holdings have been fixed. All of the work done to date, is providing better access to these unique materials.

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