NEWCOMER OF THE YEAR - FACULTY:

Awarded to a Libraries' faculty member who has exhibited:

Libraries' faculty members who were hired between December 1, 2007 and November 30, 2008 are eligible for this award.

NOMINEES:

Julie Dyles

As a faculty newcomer, Miss Dyles has done an excellent job balancing the duties of her split position. As half-time Assistant Authorities Librarian, Miss Dyles built on her already extensive OCLC and Voyager database knowledge, seamlessly incorporating new skills such as operating within Voyagers Cataloging module, searching and interpreting authority file records, and using Catalogers Toolkit. During her first evaluation period, Miss Dyles corrected 3,606 name headings; 2,406 subject headings; and 2,061 series headings. Using the Toolkit, she corrected another 36,919 headings. In addition, she imported 583 authority records into GIL and deleted 353 authority records from the GIL database. She can also be credited with at least half of the 9,825 corrections that the Section processed through the global change queue.

As half-time Monographs Original Cataloger Miss Dyles has been a quick study, competently cataloging materials in a variety of formats, languages and subjects. In addition to the materials which normally pass through the Monographs Section for cataloging, Miss Dyles also completed a special project cataloging the scanned Georgia Historic Books materials from the Digital Library of Georgia. Like each member of the Monographs Original Section, Miss Dyles has reordered her priorities to focus on cataloging the manuscript collections from the Hargrett Library, helping to prepare this portion of the collection for the move to the new Special Collections building. Both the e-book and the manuscript collection cataloging have required Miss Dyles to learn new cataloging formats and project requirements. And all this in her first year!

In addition to these activities, Miss Dyles completed her second term as president of the Libraries Staff Association, began a term as treasurer of LSA, and assisted in coordinating programming for the Big Read Project. She also helped to train the new Bibliographic Searching Coordinator in the Collection Development Department and further assisted that department when they were down a staff position by searching titles selected by bibliographers from the weekly publication British National Bibliography.

In all of these activities, Miss Dyles consistently demonstrates her eagerness and readiness to do her best for others. She has an engaging, friendly, and open manner which makes her both easy to train and supervise and easy to approach with questions. As one of three new catalogers in the Department she has shown her ability to develop strong working relationship with individuals in the department as well as unity of purpose with those in her section. She has clearly shown her strong work ethic and commitment to service in the thoroughness of her work, her active and cheerful engagement in new projects, and her commitment to continuing professional development. In addition to attending local programs, Miss Dyles has attended two Georgia Users Group Meetings and the annual ALA and SGA conferences.

Miss Dyles has demonstrated exceptional qualities as a newcomer and has amazing potential for future service to the Libraries and community.

Sandra Riggs

Sandra Riggs hit the ground running when she started working in the MLC as a Reference and Instruction Librarian. Her vast experience at her previous position in Kentucky gave her a new perspective on our current services and policies.

Sandra began a Dorm Outreach program, gauging the need for occasional librarian assistance on site at the dormitories on campus. She organized and staffed these events herself, met with RAs and University Housing, and collected data. She also has taken over the Parent Outreach during Summer Orientation, and has tweaked our previous event to make it more beneficial to visiting parents.

Sandra Riggs has blended into the Reference Department nicely. She has shown exceptionable leadership, grace under pressure, and a willingness to be involved in all aspects of Library life. She should be commended for her blazing start.

Katherine Shirley (Nomination #1)

I am nominating Kat Shirley for the Libraries Faculty Newcomer of the Year Award. Upon her arrival in 2008, Kat found an understaffed department and took on a position that had not been filled in two years. There was a backlog of work to be done and a new building to plan for. While many might have run away from such a situation, Kat stepped up to the plate and took on the mammoth job of assessing what needs to be done to be an effective archival processing unit as well as outlining the steps to do those things. Certain people have an ability to formulate a good plan of attach while others can relate to their coworkers and instruct student assistants well. Kat is wonderful in each of these areas and possesses one more quality that makes her stand out from the rest: she is the hardest worker I have yet to meet here at UGA Libraries. Her background in corporate archives makes her more conscientious of how we spend our time and what our end product results in. She is actively involved in the entire process: from acquiring items to inventorying them and organizing them for research to creating ways for researchers and patrons to discover what the Russell holds. She works with various units within our department to ensure that these goals are met. In 2008, she oversaw the opening of 20 collections and anticipates opening 26 in 2009.

Kat consistently arrives early, stays late, and is always doing research on archival standards and brushing up on the history of Georgia and nation as well as U.S. foreign affairs and policy. She is willing to travel around the state to visit donors (sometimes being stuck far from home in a broken down UGA vehicle) and retrieve donations. While getting new items is fun, donations are often dirty, sharp, and moldy and contain remnants of dead bugs and sometimes other animals. Being able to lift 40 pounds is not a recommendation for an archivist, it' s a requirement. Kat meets this assortment of challenges daily with poise and a sense of humor. It takes vision to see under the dust and dirt to find true research potential in these items and she has it.

She is always willing to take on new projects and accept other duties as assigned. Although she has little exhibit experience, Kat painstakingly planned the Russell Library exhibit for the UGA Special Collections Signature Event that took place at the Atlanta History Center last fall. This involved planning for a space she had never seen, fabricating exhibits on general areas of collecting for the Russell Library, writing exhibit text, making sure that archival materials were transported and set up safely at the venue and finally mingling with potential donors and telling them about the Libraries and our Special Collections. She is also actively helping to plan the new Special Collections Building. Before the funding was even finalized, Kat was researching such things as high density storage and automated systems to facilitate a smooth transition of work flows. Daily she brings up new issues and ideas to consider.

Kat is actively involved in a variety of organizations, including the Society of American Archivists (SAA) and the Society of Georgia Archivists (SGA). She has taken on the role of Archives Month coordinator in SGA and will facilitate a month of activities around the state to showcase archives in the area and their collections. She serves on the Jameson Award committee in SAA and is an active participant in the Congressional Papers Roundtable. She is also presenting a paper at the Association of the Centers for the Study of Congress this year in Washington, D.C. representing The University of Georgia Libraries to officials, colleagues and researchers from around the United States.

And she does all of this wearing heels!

Katherine Shirley (Nomination #2)

Beginning her position as head of Arrangement and Description in the Russell Library, Katherine (Kat) Shirley faced the larger responsibilities of not only a new job but one that is more complex than her previous experiences and one that had been vacant for two years with an increasing backlog of work awaiting her arrival. Familiarity with the framework and guidelines for ones work as well as current trends within the department is especially important for someone managing over 13,000 linear feet of archives and manuscripts plus historical materials in a variety of formats.

She diligently worked through a mountainous backlog of acquisitions, quickly dispensed with collection accessioning, and moved on to processing projects. In the workflow of accessioning a backlog of received collections and completing accession records for those not finished, she became increasingly familiar with the process, collections and storage areas, with the facility and institution, and with resources. To say Kat is exceptionally productive is an understatement.

Kat' s work within the department runs smoothly. She is engaged in formal and informal sessions with co-workers to generate improved access to our holdings and best practices to our work. New accessions are current, and she opened 6 collections for research and drafted updates for the Disaster Preparedness Manual and the Student Assistant Training Manual.

Actively participating in the Libraries Archivists Toolkit Study Group, Kat was able to share her experience and learn more about her new environment. When organizing a digital project and a microfilming project with another department, she demonstrated her skills for coordinating such efforts and building positive relationships for future partnerships. In preparation for the Russell' s move to a new facility, she began an overall holdings inventory, including documenting collection titles, location and linear foot count. By gathering an overview of the storage space situation, she was able to make recommendations for shifting materials that may help alleviate some overcrowding until the department moves. This is exceptionally important owing to the increasing number of acquisitions.

In light of the current budget situation at the university, Kat realizes that seeking external funding is even more important to the work of her unit. She plans to train her students to a higher level to increase productivity and to write grants for access and preservation projects that will help yield more opened collections. She is already involved in donor relations, having visited prospective donors with me and independently managing for transfer of records from donor organizations. She has represented the Russell well, and it is another benefit for the department that she can be relied upon to take leadership in this area.

Within the Libraries, Kat Shirley is a member of the Professional Development and Research Committee and is participating in the PDRC mentoring program. She is also a member of the Research Guide Revision Committee. She attended the Gil User Group Meeting (GUGM), May 2008, in Cochran. In addition to participating in the Archivist Toolkit Study Group, she attended XTF implementation meetings. This network of activity is excellent for getting to know her Libraries colleagues.

Professionally, Kat joined the Society of Georgia Archives, became a member of SGA 2008 Archives Week Planning Committee, and attended the fall meeting. She was also elected to the society Nominating Committee. In August, she attended the annual meeting of the Society of American Archivists in San Francisco and was appointed to the Jamieson Award Committee. In March and April (2008), she attended 2 online Solinet workshops: Grant Writing for Digitization and Preservation, and Metadata for Digitization and Preservation.

In sum, Kat Shirley' s accomplishments and contributions to the Russell and the University Libraries have been outstanding. She has worked steadily to grasp the responsibilities of her position and to maximize those resources she has at hand, or can acquire, to complete the units work, and she is invested in the welfare of the department and its role in the larger institution. She is exceptionally productive, demonstrates initiative, and has the ability to work integrally with other units in the department as well as build effective working relationships with other departments. She has also demonstrated leadership within the department, in donor relations, and in planning space and the move to the new building. Kat Shirley's overall performance is truly remarkable for a Faculty Newcomer.

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