Abstract: [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Librarians are in charge of building and managing print and online collections and helping people find information among those resources. Specialized science and technology librarians may be employed at libraries maintained by academic institutions, businesses, nonprofits, foundations, or government agencies. Louise Deis is the science and technology reference librarian and liaison to the geosciences department at Princeton University in Princeton, New Jersey, where she has worked for almost 25 years. Work overview. I inform students, professors, and visitors of the latest resources. Princeton still maintains a print reference collection, because paper copies can be more efficient for browsing, but most research is now done online by looking at published papers in large databases. Princeton University Library consists of 11 libraries or branches with 319 professional and support staff. As a collection development librarian, I look at books, journals, and databases to determine which ones best serve our research and scholarly needs. Journals are expensive, so we sometimes cull the collection. I catalog student papers and send that information to databases. I read news and blogs to keep up with the latest developments in different fields of science. I also make library guides, which contain instructions about how to find resources, which are constantly being developed, on certain topics. Librarians, inside and outside the university, share their guides with each other so we are not reinventing the wheel. I also occasionally write papers--I'm now working on two about visualization (in astrophysics and geology)--and serve on various university committees. We no longer have a reference desk; instead, my office door is always open to people who need help. We teach library instruction classes to introduce freshmen to the library and its resources. Third-year students attend a more detailed information session about their specific areas of study. I also send information to faculty and graduate students, and I help people individually online, using chat software. An important part of my job is keeping track of what faculty and students are working on and what they need, so I can support them and help students with their papers. I can help students who are working on a complex subject to narrow things down. If I see that a student needs help with bibliographic citations in a research paper, I offer to help him or her learn how to do that correctly before they write a more advanced paper, such as a senior thesis. This job is most meaningful when I can directly help people, but nowadays we rely mostly on e-mail to assist others. I like my job's flexibility, although there is a lot I still want to learn how to do. Career highlights. It is a privilege to work at a well-funded university such as Princeton, and I have been able to build a great collection. …
Publication Year: 2015
Publication Date: 2015-10-01
Language: en
Type: article
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