Organization Description

I am now the library director of Jones Library, the main campus library of a small university (about 5000-6000 undergraduates). The library is used primarily by undergraduate students and faculty but also serves graduate students, staff, and members of the community, especially genealogy researchers. The university also has several small subject-specific branch libraries located inside academic buildings, a library holding the universities rare books, manuscripts, and other special collections, and a library primarily serving the law school. In addition to providing access to numerous print and electronic materials, Jones Library offers assistance with research questions through instant messenger, phone, e-mail, reference desk, and scheduled meetings with librarians, instruction on library resources, physical space for students to study or collaborate on group projects, a website providing information about the library and allowing users to search the catalog, renew materials they’ve checked out, and access electronic resources without coming to the library building, and other services designed to fulfill the information needs of university students, faculty, staff, and, to a lesser extent, members of the surrounding community.

As library directory, I answer to the Dean of the University Libraries, who oversees Jones Library and the other university libraries. Above the Dean are the Provost and the university President.

Jones Library employs around fifty full- or part-time staff members and forty to fifty student workers in the following departments:

Circulation

Responsible for circulation and user services, including supervising stacks, managing course reserves, handling fines, and

Inter-library loan

Responsible for overseeing inter-library loans to and from Jones Library

Reference services

Responsible for information services including library instruction, assisting with research questions, and supervising the reference stacks

Government documents

Responsible for supervising the government documents collection and for assisting users in accessing those materials

Acquisitions

Responsible for adding and removing materials to the library collection

Serials

Responsible for adding, removing, and maintaining Jones Library’s subscriptions to periodicals

Preservation

Responsible for binding, repairing, and otherwise preserving the library’s collection

Information and web technology

Responsible for servicing the library’s information systems and maintaining the Jones Library web page

Cataloguing

Responsible for cataloguing library materials

Serials and preservation are the smallest departments, employing only one or two full-time staff members. Interlibrary loan and government documents, with about two full-time staff members each, although interlibrary loan also includes two part-time staff members. Information and web technology is also a small department at present but is growing steadily. Most of the student workers work in the circulation department, although a few work in interlibrary loan, government documents, and information and web technology.