The Macdonald-Kelce Library, The University of Tampa, 401 W. Kennedy Blvd, Tampa, FL 33606-1490, (813)253-3333
http://www.ut.edu/library/
The first thing that amazed me about this library was the number of librarians and staff they have on hand. There are TEN librarians (full- and part-time; director, outreach, acquisitions and reference) and TEN paraprofessional/library technical assistants and system administrator. This was truly my first realization that this was a private school, even though I'd read it previously. With so many cuts in library positions nowadays, I found this number of twenty employees amazing. Another amazing 'find' was Elizabeth Barron, a reference librarian and the librarian in charge of the government documents depository. She's the other half of the 'ADHD' team of librarians I mentioned in my posting about HCC-Ybor campus library. Her life is a book waiting to be written. I found myself halfway through the interview, sitting with my chin propped up on my hand and my jaw slacking open. I could've listened all night. As it was, she spent about three hours with me and never hinted at minding it or being put out.
Ms. Barron earned her MLIS in 1988 from the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. She was a product of the Catholic schools and did her undergrad work at the University of Gainesville, where she received a Bachelor's in Art and History. Then she worked at the Carnegie Library's children's area in Wyoming and in San Francisco while helping her husband through his own education. During that time it took her two graduate assistantships to get her MLIS. She also had a job at this time as a 'shelf reader', making sure that books got back to their appropriate shelves. Through an internship in her final year in a health science program, she became a medical librarian, dealing primarily with zoology and giving presentations.
Then, due to her husband's work with the Bikini Atoll, she moved to the Pacific, the Republic of the Marshall Islands. Work was going on to set up libraries and she became a founding member of the Pacific Islands Association of Libraries, Archives, and Museums (PIALA). You can read more about this at http://sites.google.com/site/pialaorg/ and specifically about its establishment and Ms. Barron's involvement at http://sites.google.com/site/pialaorg/history. Students were reading at no better than a Fifth grade level and a library was needed. So they built it. Adults were so illiterate that Ms. Barron gave as one anecdote a problem where a nurse was going to give a dose of medicine to someone that would've been an overdose if she had not been there to correct it. Ms. Barron worked at the library, the hospital, and with their nuclear claims tribunal. She was involved in the environmental assessment of the media program. She was homeschooling her daughter when word came that her husband would be going to Kiev. She felt that was no place to raise a child at the time, so she came to live in Tampa, Florida in 1993. She worked one year in mental healthcare. Then, September 22, 1994, she began working at the University of Tampa's library. She says if she had to do it all over again, she'd get her Doctorate's. One interesting story involved meeting Barbara Bush. She was the only certified librarian available for a White House conference for Library and Information Science. She also was a part of the Oxford Roundtable with forty other people from around the world, involving Freedom of Speech and the Press because she so highly values it, especially after working with government documents. She also was awarded a Fellowship at the Library of Congress last semester. It involved research on Guam and Micronesia, and the information 'buried in the national archives'. There were hundreds of boxes to plow through, but most were still classified and nothing could be done with them. She said there were more there classified than there is of materials unclassified on the matter. Another reason why she values Freedom of Speech and the Press.
Ms. Barron chose being a librarian because she likes the work. It is never the same. She never knows what she'll be asked next. She also finds government documents depository work interesting because there is so much that needs to be archived for history's sake and so little that the general public is aware of that is out there. She chose not to work with children, for although she likes them, they make her nervous. She laughs here because it seems ironic since she works hard to build the children's section of the library, especially for teacher resources. She is a member of ALA, the Government Documents Roundtable (GODORT), and PIALA. With GODORT, she remains active because she is "passionate about access to information". She feels public access to information is eroding. She also remains active in community service in mental healthcare and sits on some boards, such as MHC HUD section 8. She remains current on continuing education activities by reading journals, such as Library Journal, College and Research Libraries, Southern Librarian, and broadly reads children's literature. She used to do reviews and history of children's literature for the Tampa Tribune.
The UT library is part of a private university, offering education to the Master's level in education, business, nursing and writing. It is open not only to its students, teachers, and staff, but also to the general public, including the U.S. Government Depository. The Depository includes items from education, business and commerce, health and human services, treasury, congressional hearings, and world politics. Thirty percent of the depository are items from the Government Printing Offices (GPOs). Ms. Barron is bound by Title 44 to maintain the depository status, which means cataloging and making items available for use and it must be open and available to the public. She says fifty percent of materials do not come through the GPO. They are known as 'fugitive' documents. Again, she stresses the importance of public access, using the Statistical Abstract of the U.S. - 130th edition, as an example of erroding access. They are doing away with the hard copy and the internet copy. Where will folks find their statistics, she asks. Her governing body includes the Public Printer and Superintendent of Documents of the U.S. At school it is her supervisor who then answers to the provost. The library hours can vary during final exams, holidays, and summer sessions. It is best to view their online monthly calendar to be sure. In general, though, they are open 8a.m.-12a.m. Mon thru Thurs, 8a.m.-6p.m. Fri, 10a.m.-6p.m. Sat, and 12p.m.-12a.m. Sundays. Everyone I spoke to was kind, courteous and professional.
The building has three stories. The third is used for storage and there is an annex off-campus for the government depository. Library of Congress classification is used. The collection has 250,000 volumes and 'tons of electronic e-books and journals', especially for the nursing program. Notable is the children's literature collection mentioned previously. Ms. Barron is trying to build up awards' books, such as the Newbery, Caldecott, Coretta Scott King Awards, etc. They are also working on a teaching laboratory,which will be state-of-the-art when renovated. There are also study rooms, a reference lab with computers, and a curriculum resource room for education students and teachers. When she said checkout is allowed only twice in a semester, I had to ask her again to be sure I'd heard her correctly. AV/DVD checkout is allowed up to three days. Sometimes professors have special items on reserve. Special programs include bibliographic instruction, Gateways orientation, and an English 102 presentation due to research papers that will need to be completed by students. There is also a $75,000 curriculum program, which is activity-based, not theory-based. It is for preK-12th grades in memory of her mom, Evelyn Lee, who just so happened to be a former teacher at my school, West Tampa Elementary. (Ms. Barron and I immediately made a connection on the phone through this when I called and requested to meet with her. She also worked with Ms. Ellison from the HCC-Ybor campus library. See what a small world librarianship really is, I thought.)
Technology and social media used includes computers, laptops, GoMobile, blogs and a business blog. They also incorporate Flickr, Twitter, Shelfari, Blackboard, SpartanWeb, email, and global resources. Once again, no Facebook.
What most impressed me with this library was how ignorant I was all this time to what has been available right in my own backyard. A major resource, not just in materials, but also in librarians! I was again so impressed by what I learned about Ms. Barron that I feel humbled. I am made more aware of what I really DON'T know and what I am not yet capable of doing (or so I feel). As we walked out the doors to go home at the end of our interview, I stated this to Ms. Barron, and she said...
it is never too late to start.
Note made and taken.
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