BEST SUPPORTING PLAYER:

This award recognizes a person who remains steadfast in commitment to the Libraries' mission, contributes consistently to achieving departmental goals, and fosters esprit de corps among colleagues. Examples include:

NOMINEES:

Ruta Abolins

Ruta Abolins has served as the Best Supporting Player for the Libraries for many years. She consistently works hard to promote us through her work with the Peabody Awards and Home Movie Day, both of which take much planning and the ability to cooperate with a wide variety of people and organizations. She has the distinctive ability to network and work with donors while letting her unique personality and genuine warmth shine through, both of which work to endear even more people to the UGA Libraries.

Ruta's personality is not only infectious with people outside of the Libraries but also within. An earlier statement written about Ruta said that, Her energy and enthusiasm for people--during a telephone call, a hello in the hallway, or a friendly chat in the first few minutes of a meeting re-energizes those around her, and make others -want- to be a part of her team!

Behind all of the smiles and goodwill, Ruta also has a strong work ethic and a willingness to step up and say, "The buck stops here" when it comes to her department and her projects. A natural leader is able to guide with words and lead with actions and Ruta embodies this daily.

Regina House

I nominate Regina House for Best Supporting Player. It was this time last year when the Libraries decided they would need to gather faculty input for our journal cancellation project. Our materials budget had fallen short for many years, but we knew that this time the University would not be able to make up the shortfall. Questions swirled about how to provide useful data for the faculty so that they could make informed comments on our subscriptions. As the weeks went by more and more categories of data were suggested including cost, fund, subject, number of searches, cost per search, place indexed, and number of times cited.

Regina had maintained spreadsheets on our electronic product usage for many years. This task has always been a complicated one since not all vendors use the same definitions for what constitutes a use. Each vendor reports statistics on a different schedule and in a different format. While most vendors provide ISSNs on their report, not all do. Some use the ISSN for the electronic version of the item, while others use the print ISSN. The dilemma for Regina was how to compile this data into one spreadsheet in a way that made comparisons among titles valid. The goal was to have the spreadsheet ready in the early fall so that faculty members could peruse the listing and make suggestions by November.

Regina worked with the disparate files tirelessly in July and August, massaging the data in numerous ways to create the final spreadsheet. The merging process required a single key, the ISSN. Bob Trotter took her file and provided an interface for the faculty. The result was a successful comment period with many faculty members offering their thoughts on individual journal titles.

Kat Leache

The Curriculum Materials Library is a tiny segment of the Libraries and as such, it is difficult to garner multiple nominations for an ASSET Award. However, Kathryn (Kat) Leache is most deserving of the Best Supporting Player Award for 2009. At the CML, we all do a little bit of everything and Kat makes it all run smoothly. She supervises and mentors the student workers as just one part of her job. When the students need a correcting hand, her notes to them are firm but kind, encouraging them to do better, but not castigating them either. The students are more willing to go the extra mile as a result of her style. This healthy student worker outlook reflects positively on the Libraries as patrons have dealings with them in the CML.

One of Kat's most outstanding attributes is her demeanor at the Circulation Desk. As anyone who has worked in public service is aware, patrons are not always happy campers and sometimes dealing with the more unhappy ones can make anyone question why they are in this line of work. Kat, however, is unfailingly courteous and thoughtful when dealing with all of the CML's patrons. Her thoughtfulness when replying to questions about circulation policies or fines or lost books does the Libraries credit. Her goodwill fosters a positive opinion of the Libraries.

If Kat has a project to do, there never is the worry that it won't be done correctly. Her willingness to undertake projects that more easily fall into the category of "other duties as assigned" than her job description is just another benefit of working with her. For instance, in seeking to get a dedicated GIL terminal installed in the CML, she worked with the College of Education's OIT department to coordinate Physical Plant's activities with all the OIT workers. She has also undertaken to maintain the CML's blog. This was a little outside of her comfort zone, but she has committed herself to doing this and the result is very professional.

With such a tiny staff, flexibility is paramount and Kat is extremely flexible. When it necessary for her to be here a little early to open the Library, I don't worry that she will forget. When she says she'll do something, it's as good as done and she's always willing to accommodate any schedule changes.

Being enthusiastic day in and day out about any job is tricky, but Kat is always willing to bring her best self to work. She's also willing to look at the way we've always done things and see if there isn't possibly a new and better way to accomplish a task. She applies this fresh approach to everything from shelving our supplies to shelving our current periodicals.

For all the work and creativity Kat brings to her role in the CML I feel she deserves the Best Supporting Player award for 2009.

Ngaire Smith and Lynn Cahoon

When you dial the Libraries' primary telephone number during business hours, chances are that the dulcet tones of Ngaire Smith or Lynn Cahoon will greet you. Both of these women provide unfailing good cheer and excellent service to our telephone patrons. On average, they answer upwards of 6,000 calls a year. This is in addition to the more than a thousand questions asked and answered by email and US mail annually. These questions range from the mundane (operating hours) to the complex (involved reference questions, sometimes involving follow-up). They are the infantry in the battle to answer patrons' information needs.

Ngaire and Lynn also face the nightmarishly daunting task each week of coordinating the coverage schedule for the reference desk. Seeing Ngaire's computer screen with more than two dozen individual schedules trying to fit on one page makes one appreciate the logistical backbends she does on a weekly basis to keep all of us happy and our staffing needs met.

I've nominated them together because they both play an important part in supporting the Reference Department and when either one of them is not here, the absence is definitely felt.

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