NEWCOMER OF THE YEAR - STAFF

Awarded to a Libraries' classified staff member who has exhibited:

• Exceptional job performance;
• Strong work ethic;
• Commitment to service;
• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills;
• Dedicated engagement in training for the position and a commitment to professional development;
• Successful initiation of working relationships, and
• Demonstration of solid potential for future service to the Libraries.

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

NOMINEES:

Phoebe Acheson (Nomination #1)

Phoebe Acheson is one of those exceptional employees about whom her colleagues wonder, "Has she really only just started working here?" From day one, Phoebe slid comfortably into her role at the Miller Learning Center. She's been responsible for the desk scheduling in the MLC building and a considerable assortment of other administrative duties. But beyond those, she has consistently presented the department with new ideas about how we can better manage our workflow and service our patrons.

• Phoebe worked with other librarians to pilot test different reference models in the MLC building.
• She immediately volunteered to write for the blog, suggesting new types of articles, such as GALILEO database profiles and a series of "library lingo" posts, demystifying the vocabulary of our profession for the masses. (In writing that series, she works with Danny Bridges in Access Services.)
• She has assumed liaison duties to the Classics department and is spearheading a "flash mob" cataloging project with them, to help them organize their local collection using the website Library Thing.
• With Amber Prentiss, she has assumed responsibility for organizing the Libraries presence at the Freshman Orientation Fair. As anyone who has been tasked with that job can tell you, it is time-consuming and requires a great attention to detail.
• Phoebe is also coordinating the implementation of the software program LibGuides, which allows librarians to quickly create a web "handout" for class sessions.

Additionally, Phoebe is just a delight to be around, a coworker that brightens your day and improves your mood. (And she can reach things on tall shelves.)

Phoebe Acheson (Nomination #2)

I nominate Phoebe Acheson for Classified Staff Newcomer of the Year. Phoebe arrived at UGA brimming with ideas. Her first suggestion was to use the new Google forms application to collect desk statistics. Together with a colleague she designed the form, tested and implemented it in the MLC and later in Main Reference. Phoebe undertook the responsibility for the Stall Journal, an in-house newsletter posted in the MLC restrooms. She also offered to write definitions of library jargon for the "Question of the Week" blog which appears on the Libraries homepage.

Building on her extensive background in Greek and Roman culture Phoebe established contacts with members of the Classics Department. She created a useful web page for the Studies Abroad program in Rome with practical assistance links from the Comune di Roma and Romaturismo as well as links for the students' academic work.

Not content to just work in Reference Phoebe has also undertaken an internship in Collection Development to analyze usage statistics. She hopes that her work here will help bibliographers make the best decisions in our time of fiscal austerity.

Jan Levinson

Jan Levinson joined the Russell Library family in July of 2008. In her short tenure there, Jan has amassed a remarkable list of accomplishments and performed her work with unparalleled excellence. Upon her arrival at Russell, she assumed responsibility for curating a Georgia Humanities Council funded exhibit on the Highlander Center and a smaller exhibit on one the Highlander Center's founders, Donald West. With great speed, she assimilated a broad base of knowledge about the Highlander Center's history, worked closely with lending institutions, and participated in the design and mounting of materials for both exhibits in time for them to open in early September, just a little more than 2 months after her arrival. Jan also played a key role in the development of the program series that complemented the exhibit. She worked closely with speakers and assisted with the often tedious but essential work of program preparation. Also, during the fall she participated in a major civic engagement project in four cities in Georgia. Traveling to Tifton and Atlanta 6 times and hosting 3 evening events in the Athens area, Jan made it possible for Russell to expand the reach of its outreach efforts and participate in a national presidential libraries initiative. In January, Jan proposed a major public film and discussion series based on health disparities. She managed a steering committee for the project, approached funding partners, and identified stellar speakers for the 7 part project. Having just finished this series, the results have been great, Russell has established new ties with departments on campus, nurtured a growing loyal following for Russell programs, and most importantly given greater visibility to a key public issue--all of this is due to the hard work, imagination, and determination of Jan. She is a remarkable colleague and a true asset to the outreach program at the Russell Library.

Sarah Stamatkin

When Sarah Stamatkin joined the Government Documents Processing department in July 2008, she came with undergraduate work experience managing the government documents stacks at Indiana University. In addition to her expertise with SuDoc classification, she also had experience with online catalogs, OCLC searching, and cataloging. Sarah has put all that background to wonderful use in her first year with us and has really hit the ground running.

Sarah is the queen of efficiency and organization! Hired as the Federal Regional Depository Assistant, Sarah came into a newly configured position that was evolving. Working with both the Government Documents Processing department and the Federal Regional Depository Librarian, Sarah has demonstrated superb communication skills and flexibility in all her duties, especially as procedures and workflows were changing. Most of her time has been spent processing lists of documents that other U.S. depository libraries in Georgia want to discard, as well as checking lists of documents that libraries nationwide are discarding. She does bibliographic and call number verification for every document listed, checks to see if we supposedly own it, checks the stacks at Main to see if it was lost or significantly damaged in the July 2003 fire, and handles the communication and tracking for all the lists she works on. Before Sarah joined us, it was normal to receive 40-80 lists from Georgia depositories in a year. In Sarah' s first year with us, we have received approximately 150 lists! Could it be that streamlined procedures and Sarah' s rapid turnaround time have encouraged the Georgia depositories to keep those lists coming? Thank goodness she is the queen of organization!

In addition to Sarah' s normal duties, she has undertaken some other big projects in her first year. When the State Law Library ceased its U.S. depository operations, we received countless boxes of documents that they had never processed. Sarah went through them all, checked to see what we needed, offered what we didn' t need to other libraries, and then disposed of what was left. She has also been working on massive lists of documents that the library at Tifton wants to discard.

Sarah has demonstrated a keen interest in learning other functions that weren' t specifically part of her position. When she receives documents to swap for scorched and crumbling documents in the stacks, she does the physical processing and GIL work which previously would have been handled by others. And because she wanted to enhance her bibliographic and cataloging skills, she has been importing OCLC records for older documents she is swapping that don' t already have GIL records.

Through it all, Sarah demonstrates good cheer, flexibility, hard work, efficiency, and outstanding organizational skills. She also asks great questions and suggests ways to improve workflow and procedures. She' s an all-around great newcomer!