Each year, the Libraries honor personnel who have gone above and beyond through the Library Employee Awards Program. Congratulations to this year’s winners!
Rookie of the Year
The Rookie of the Year Award recognizes a new employee who has shown outstanding performance in their current position. The 2023 Rookies of the Year are Cole Hudson, Mike Krom and Casiday Long.
From the very first day on the job, Cole has been genuine and extremely helpful. No question is too little or too large, and he always circles back and follows up on the problem or concern. He is highly regarded by his team members and provides stability to committees and meetings he is a part of. Cole quickly dove into many projects related to the ongoing Mullins Renovation, campus IT security initiatives, and faculty governance. He is now chairing the Library Management Council and is unfailingly kind and patient in responding to urgent or complex requests.
Mike has quickly become indispensable to library operations, whether it is tracking down some obscure supplier for needed equipment, hustling materials back and forth to various library locations, or just going out of his way to help no matter what the request. He proactively follows up with vendors to make sure we get things as quickly as possible. In addition to placing orders where we have specific items in mind, he has also gone above and beyond to help us find more cost-effective solutions when possible, including for hard-to-find items with specific dimensions. The Special Collections’ move could not have happened without him.
Casiday joined Special Collections in October 2021, at a time when Research Services was desperately understaffed, and immediately hit the ground running. She’s contributed to a variety of projects beyond her regular duties, including preparing materials for transfer to LINX in advance of the renovation, helping the Processing Unit through an index conversion project and by adding links in finding aids to digitized collection materials related to Japanese American incarceration during World War II, and helping Digital Services with a transcription project. Casiday is always thoughtful, kind and willing to help however is needed.
Extra Mile
The Extra Mile Award recognizes employees who have gone above and beyond their regular assignment within the Libraries in very specific and recognizable ways. While many employees go the extra mile all the time, this award acknowledges the service and dedication of those who take on one or more special initiatives to help others in the Libraries at large through service they were not called upon to do. This year’s Extra Mile Awards go to Sierra Marklevits and Charles Sabo.
Sierra was responsible for ordering monographs. She monitored the Acquisitions shared email inboxes for selections, searching selections for duplicates, mastering the use of the Gobi interface, participating in Rialto training, creating purchases orders in the Alma system, tracking and claiming those orders, and communicating with selectors and library patrons about those orders. Acquisitions would not have been able to process the monographs orders without her assistance. Sierra provided feedback and ideas about the new Acquisitions workflow brought about with the change of the ILS to Alma. Despite regularly spending 2-4 hours daily helping Acquisitions and Selectors with their ordering, Sierra still managed to successfully execute her Collection Development Strategies duties. Working together with her supervisor, Sierra participated in the gathering and archiving over 400 COUNTER usage reports. She participated in gathering statistics for reviewing the 97.4% of Libraries’ renewals (based on expenditures) within a three-week period, something that was traditionally done throughout the whole year.
Charles Sabo ordered monographs from September through April, mostly books. He monitored the Acquisitions shared email inboxes for selections, searching selections for duplicates, mastering the use of the Gobi interface, participating in Rialto training, creating purchases orders in the Alma system, tracking and claiming those orders, and communicating with selectors and library patrons about those orders. He provided feedback and ideas about the new Acquisitions workflow brought about with the change of the ILS to Alma. Working together with his direct report, Charles participated in the gathering and archiving over 400 COUNTER usage reports. He participated in gathering statistics for reviewing 97.4% of Libraries’ renewals (based on expenditures) within a three-week period, something that was traditionally done throughout the whole year. While these and other Collection Development Strategies examples are directly related to his assigned duties, their successful execution still serves as a testament to Charles’s dedication and commitment as he didn’t let his Acquisitions responsibilities affect his assigned responsibilities. Charles’ hard work is one of the primary reasons that selectors’ book requests were ordered and made available to the patrons, along with new and renewed subscriptions.
Keystone Award
The Keystone Award recognizes employees who make the Libraries, the campus, or the community a better place. The Keystone award is designed to honor employees who share their talents, creativity, and special skills in ways that connect library departments to one another, to the campus, or to the community at large. Keystone award winners may be recognized for activities that improve the climate or morale within the library or for volunteer efforts on campus or in the community, state, or beyond. This year’s Keystone Award winner is Ashley Mitchell.
Promoted to Serials Cataloging Supervisor in January 2022, Ashley continued to perform the primary duties of her previous position in Acquisitions for most of 2022. On her own initiative, she explored and implemented prediction patterns and receiving materials using Alma. She experimented with the settings for Alma and the Zebra printers until she successfully printed labels needed for receiving. Then she shared her discoveries with the Law Library to help them transition. The migration of receiving from Sierra to Alma would have been significantly delayed without her efforts. Ashley trained the new receiving specialist while leveraging their ALMA experience to further improve local procedures. She also served as the work-study student supervisor until July 2022, which allowed for a smooth transition for the student to a new supervisor. Her attention to detail, training and assistance ensured a positive experience for the student employee and the new supervisor. Finally, she provided valuable and thoughtful input for furniture needs, shelving requirements, and floor plans during the move to Gladson-Ripley.
Outstanding Support Service Award
The Outstanding Support Service Award recognizes graduate assistants, hourly, and work-study students who demonstrate exceptional performance, service, or contributions. This year’s Outstanding Support Service Award recipient is Megan Stephenson.
Megan works 20 hours a week for Acquisitions. She began working during a time when Acquisitions was short-staffed and getting ready to move to Gladson-Ripley. Her initial duties were to help us move. Megan did so much to get Acquisitions, Content Services, and Multimedia Services moved out of the space that needed to be renovated. This included assisting with clearing items out of compact storage. She also assisted Special Collections with move-related duties before coming to Acquisitions. After the move, and partially during, Megan’s duties expanded. She promptly received print books, processed gifts (including a backlog), and took on printing labels after our student graduated. Her dependability and eagerness to help has been an asset to Acquisitions and to the Libraries during a year of great change.
Team Project Award
The Team Project Award recognizes the achievements of employees who work together as a group to complete a library project. For their help and teamwork in preparing for Phase II of the Mullins Renovation, in addition to the migration from Sierra to Alma, the Team Project Award this year goes to all Libraries personnel.
University Libraries Commitment Award
The University Libraries Commitment Award recognizes employees who demonstrate exceptional and/or outstanding commitment and dedication to autonomously gain new skills and knowledge through professional instruction related to Academic Research Library operations. This year’s University Libraries Commitment Award went to the six staff members enrolled in an MLS degree program during calendar year 2022: Regan Batch, Sally Crutcher, Stephanie Guenther, Casiday Long, Sierra Marklevits and Katherine Williams.