Phoebe Acheson, Jacquie Houston and Amber Prentiss

Every summer thousands of first-year and transfer students come to the UGA campus for a whirlwind two-day orientation. Part of the orientation schedule is a Resource Fair with representatives from University organizations and departments. Over the past few years, Phoebe Acheson, Amber Prentiss, and Jacquie Houston have organized the Libraries’ presence at the Fairs into a well-oiled machine. On top of their regular job duties, they keep the Libraries’ booth at the Resource Fairs going all summer long. First, they get Diane Trap’s help designing a tri-fold booth backdrop, and they gather Libraries’ information handouts and souvenir tchotchkes to lure people to the booth. They juggle the schedules of the Reference volunteers needed to set up, staff, and break down the table at each of the 21 Resource Fairs in June, July, and August. They regularly communicate with the volunteers about changes and challenges ranging from developing handouts on applying for student assistant jobs to warnings that the Warnell booth across from the Libraries features a live snake. While the Resource Fair itself can be a crazy experience (imagine standing at a booth in the Tate Ballroom when hundreds of pre-freshmen and their enthusiastic parents are suddenly let loose with only 45 minutes to gather as much information as they can), it’s vital that the Libraries are represented among the student services and resources. Phoebe, Amber, and Jacquie make certain the table staffers are well-equipped to set up the booth, field any questions that come their way, and generally give students a friendly and positive introduction to the UGA Libraries.

Kat Stein

I am pleased to nominate Kat Stein for the Other Duties As Assigned award. Kat’s management of the Arrangement and Description unit of the Russell Library surpasses just our basic duties of receiving and making material available for research and has a far-reaching effect upon other units in the department as well as other departments within the library.

Upon being hired, Kat knew of the upcoming challenge involved in readying the Russell Library for the move to a new building. However, within the last year efforts intensified in this area and she was forced to add several new duties to those she was already performing, such as: picking up material in different parts of the state; accessioning it and preparing it for processing, and working with Russell staff members to facilitate the most accessible records online. Her new duties include: acting as a liaison with the other departments preparing to create a plan of action for the pending move; researching, planning, and implementing the inventorying and bar-coding of the collections in the Russell Library; working with the Cataloging Department to ensure that all books in the collections are accurately cataloged for access, and supervising staff and students in surveying and re-housing collections to ready them for the move.

While doing all of this, Kat still manages to volunteer for committee work with the Society of Georgia Archivists as well as the Society of American Archivists and the Association of Centers for the Study of Congress. Her office chair is always empty – not because she’s away from work – but because she is out working within the department to make sure every single paper, photograph, book, artifact, textile, map, and piece of audio-visual material is accounted for and will be moved safely and efficiently in August.