2005
Summit Award Winners
by Earlene
Chelf
Each
year during Homecoming week, the University, and specifically,
Alumni Affairs, hosts the Summit Awards, an evening set aside
to thank individuals and groups for their outstanding volunteer
support of WKU. Any University entity benefiting from volunteer
support is eligible to nominate an individual to be recognized
as its “Volunteer of the Year”. Since University
Libraries has two volunteer Advisory Councils, a “Volunteer
of the Year” was selected from both.
 |
| Members
of Libraries Advisory Council at a meeting |
For
the Libraries Advisory Council, Nancy Priest was selected
to receive the 2004 Volunteer of the Year Award. Mrs. Priest
has served on the LAC for about four years, and has been an
active and involved volunteer. Since joining the Council,
she has been highly involved in the Book Fest Author’s
Party, has volunteered to assist with the Used Book Sale and
at the festival.
This
past year, Mrs. Priest also demonstrated tireless leadership
by serving as Co-chair of the Program Committee for the William
H. Natcher Collection opening, a fundraiser to benefit the
Kentucky Library and Museum. As Co-chair, along with her husband,
Whayne, Mrs. Priest assumed a major portion of the leadership
of a 15-member committee whose charge was to plan many aspects
of the event – from date selection, to invitation development,
to lining up special speakers, and her committee was even
responsible for the reception. Ms. Priest’s guidance
and direction resulted in an outstanding event, bringing credit
to both the Kentucky Library and Museum and to the University.
The event was highly successful, raising over $10,000 to support
programs and activities.
Mike Harper
was selected as the Kentucky Museum Advisory Council’s
outstanding volunteer for 2004. Mr. Harper has served on the
MAC for about two years, but in that short period of time
has had dramatic impact. Since joining the Council, he has
generously shared his time and extensive background and experience
in organization and management to benefit the Kentucky Museum,
specifically in the areas of fundraising and membership development.
In the area of fundraising, he helped establish both long-
and short-term goals and objectives. While pursuing long-term
objectives to increase the museum’s endowment, Mr. Harper
has provided outstanding leadership for an immediate goal
and need to increase memberships. His efforts led to one of
the largest membership campaigns in years.
Mr. Harper’s
leadership in membership development was extended further
through his serving as Chair of the Membership Committee,
which was one of three committees organizing the William H.
Natcher Political Collection opening. In addition to Mr. Harper’s
activities on behalf of the Kentucky Library and Museum, he
has also volunteered with the Book Festival.
University
Libraries is fortunate to have a large group of citizen-volunteers,
who work tirelessly to advance the libraries and museum. We
are indebted not only to Nancy Priest and Mike Harper but
to all of our volunteers who provide outstanding support.
Government
Documents Retrospective Conversion Project
by Katy
Roe
Government
Documents on the ground floor of Helm Library is now undergoing
a major project. In 1999, the GPO Library Inspector visited
Government Documents. During this visit, it was strongly recommended
that the federal documents collection be cataloged into TOPCAT.
This would be a major project. While GPO began cataloging
federal documents in July 1976, WKU didn’t begin to
catalog our federal documents into TOPCAT until January 2002.
Thus, in March, 2004, Rosemary Meszaros drafted a proposal
for purchasing MARCIVE Tapeload bibliographic records of these
federal document titles. This would be a retrospective cataloging
project to cover the years 1976-2001. The proposal was submitted
and ultimately approved. Funding was secured in July 2004
and the project was ready to begin.
This
project entails going through a profile list from MARCIVE
of around 10,800 GPO item numbers. Rosemary, Debbie Lamastus
and their student workers are going through this list to identify
those items we have in our collection. Rosemary estimates
that it will take three to six months to fully complete this
profile. Once this is complete, the bibliographic records
for these particular titles will then be provided to us by
MARCIVE. When these titles are received from MARCIVE, Nelda
Sims will import the files into our TOPCAT system. After the
files are loaded into TOPCAT, the Government Documents staff
will then have to match the bibliographic record with the
documents on the shelf, create holdings and item records for
each one, then display the record in TOPCAT. This part of
the project will take a few years to fully complete.
 |
| Rosemary
Meszaros giving a presentation at a reference workshop.
In the foreground is Dewayne Stovall. |
The
end result of this conversion project will be increased usage
of our document collection. Before this project, a patron
would have to go to the MARCIVEWEB.docs database in order
to get the SuDOC number and then go to Government Documents
to see if we had that particular item, as the item was not
in the TOPCAT system. This project will put these items in
TOPCAT for general reference, and a patron will be able to
see our holdings; he may then go to Government Documents to
retrieve that item for his use.
Rosemary had some additional help in setting up this project.
She worked closely with Nelda Sims, Rose Davis, and Connie
Foster during the initial stages of the project. Nelda and
Rose also worked with Rosemary during the recent successful
test file in TOPCAT. As things progress, Dewayne Stovall and
Nada Durham will work on the project as well.
Many
universities in our region, such as University of Kentucky,
University of Louisville, Morehead State, KDLA, Vanderbilt,
University of Tennessee, use the MARCIVE services that we
will be using. This is a project that is very tedious and
time consuming but will be well worth the effort and work
when it is completed. What a plus it will be for our patrons
to be able to search these federal documents in our TOPCAT
system and see what we actually own. Kudos to Rosemary and
everyone involved from start to finish in this huge conversion
project.
Doug
Wiles—More than a Library Security Officer
by Dan
Forrest
Since
1993 Doug Wiles has been the Security Officer for University
Libraries. He and his team of patrollers have the responsibility
of keeping the library and the people and materials in it
safe. If there’s a problem, you’ll find Doug on
the scene. From his office at Circulation on Cravens 4, he
keeps in radio contact with his patrollers as they make the
rounds of the buildings each evening. Also in his office are
the monitors for the library’s security cameras, which
Doug installed himself. Having video evidence makes prosecuting
thieves and other malefactors that much easier. Doug maintains
a close relationship with the university and city police officers.
 |
| Doug
Wiles and his family at the Libraries' 2004 Holiday Celebration
Party. |
Doug’s
responsibilities have grown over the years from just providing
security. He also covers safety issues like providing training
for new staff members, staging fire drills, and developing
policies for emergencies. He and his crew have also done their
share of moving furniture and equipment and installing shelving
around the library.
Doug has
been around college campuses his whole life. He grew up in
Richmond on the campus of Eastern Kentucky University. His
family moved to Bowling Green in time for him to graduate
from Warren Central High School. He has attended Western off
and on since then, with breaks for military service (he’s
an Army veteran of the first Gulf War) and to start a family.
Two
year old son Gabriel and 12 year old daughter Lauren have
been frequent visitors to the library and great staff favorites.
Doug’s wife Amy, an emergency room nurse at the Medical
Center, is expecting the newest Wiles in May of 2005. When
he’s not at the library, Doug loves to spend time in
the great outdoors with his family: backpacking, camping,
fishing, and boating. He is as handy around the house as around
the library, doing woodworking and tinkering with his motorcycle,
boat, and pick-up. |
