Hallie Pritchett

As Head of the Map Library, Hallie Pritchett oversees the facility, supervising its reference services, cataloging, and staff. She also selects for and manages its collections. As Federal Regional Depository Librarian, she supervises the U.S. and international documents collections and processing staff. Additionally, she serves as a consultant to the U.S. selective depository libraries in Georgia; her knowledge and expertise in this area have recently attracted the attention of the GPO which interviewed Hallie regarding various depository best practices.

Hallie supervises six full-time employees between the two departments and accomplishes all of her duties while physically moving from the off-campus Map Library location to the Main Library several times a week—something most UGA librarians are not called on to do.

Over the last year, Hallie has reorganized the Government Documents Processing Unit, and completed the 2010 revision of the Georgia State Plan for Federal Depository Libraries. She has also spent a great deal of time planning, measuring, calculating, and attending meetings toward the eventual consolidation of the Map Library and government documents collections that will form a new map and government information library.

Hallie is also responsible for designing, maintaining, and updating the Map Library and Government Documents Web sites. She recently completed a redesign of UGA’s Government Documents Web site. The result is a streamlined, intuitive, attractive, and easy to navigate site.

Even though Hallie’s UGA committee involvement includes the Faculty Advisory Board, the Department Heads Group, and the GIL Coordination Group, she is also committed to taking leadership roles at the state and national levels. She serves as Chair for the Committee for the Georgia State Plan for Federal Depository Libraries; Permanent Executive Secretary, Government Information Interest Group (GIIG), Georgia Library Association; Chair, Regional Government Information Librarians (REGIL), and Vice Chair/Chair-elect, Map & Geography Round Table (MAGERT), ALA.

With all the responsibilities she has, Hallie still finds time to work closely with those she supervises. She empowers her staff by showing them where they fit in long- and short- term planning, providing them ample training, and welcoming their input into decision-making processes. She’s never too busy to answer questions and regularly meets with staff members to check on project workflow, proactively catching any problems and redirecting or tweaking the process if necessary. (Hallie is constantly on the lookout for greater process efficiencies!) She’s a clear communicator who is easy to talk to, and she has a great sense of humor. Hallie is the kind of supervisor everyone wants but not everyone is lucky enough to get. She daily earns the honor of Supervisor of the Year.

Daron Mitchell

Over this past year, Daron has hired and trained an entirely new staff for the Circulation Office. Thankfully, her 25 years of experience in the department provide her with a solid foundation that allows her to give her new employees a breadth of knowledge and experiences such that a history and perspective can be given on a myriad of situations that come up with patrons and the interplay of Access Services with the other Libraries Departments. Daron is a meticulous trainer and a staunch advocate and supporter of her staff. The Circulation Office routinely handles sensitive, difficult, and potentially volatile situations with patrons. Daron ensures that her staff are prepared to respond with a respectful, professional demeanor which stems from careful training on policies and procedures and this allows the staff to make good decisions.