McGoogan News

Ride an elevator or take the stairs. However you reach Level 6, you’re likely to encounter a friendly, knowledgeable face ready to help you make sense of McGoogan Library’s many resources. 

Staff at the AskUs desk not only exist as a sort of front door to the library, they’re also the eyes and ears of the space. The AskUs team notices student needs and identifies patterns in the use of library services.

With the pendulum swinging back toward the fall semester, it felt right to check in with the eyes and ears of McGoogan Library: Tyler Hamilton, Courtney Kilroy and Durrett Winter. While answering at separate times, the trio fielded the same set of questions, building perspective on what to know and think about when entering the library. 

What is one thing you’d like students, incoming or returning, to know about the library?

“The space is meant for you,” Hamilton said.

This means students should feel freedom to rearrange the furniture in a given area “to make the space more effective and comfortable for your studying”—without moving anything out of the library, of course, Hamilton added. 

Also, “there are no bad questions—please just ask us,” Winter said. McGoogan librarians work from a desire to match students with the resources they want and need, Winter added.

Toward that end, “your librarians want so badly to help you that they got degrees in it,” Kilroy noted. 

“Build a relationship with your liaison librarian, especially if you’re planning on doing any original research this semester,” they added. “They give the best advice when it comes to how the library and our resources can and will work for you specifically in your time at UNMC.”

Read more: See McGoogan Library through its ‘eyes and ears’

Is there one misconception or FAQ about the library you’d like to identify and answer or address?

You don’t have to know anything about the library before using it, Kilroy emphasized. 

“Many folks approach us under the impression that they should already know everything about the library and what we offer,” Kilroy added. “Some seem to feel a level of embarrassment for not already knowing the ins and outs, even if it’s their first time in the space or using a resource! That feeling makes sense, but I really don’t want it to get in folks’ way of asking for help.”

Echoing Winter, there are no “silly questions,” Kilroy said, reminding patrons that what librarians don’t know, they will find out. 

The most common question encountered by AskUs staff, Hamilton said, has to do with “searching for and accessing articles.” That process is a sort of “art,” Hamilton added, “between which journals and publishers we have access to and during which time range as well as the technical difficulties that can occur.”

Published FAQs and their answers can help further this specific art, Hamilton said, as can conversations at the AskUs desk.

Not least of student concerns: how to use the space itself, Winter said. Knowing where to study (anywhere on Levels 6 and 7), which is the more collaborative level (6) and which is the quiet level (7) goes a long way, they said.

What is one library resource or offering you’d like to see students take advantage of during this school year?

Hamilton hopes students will make use of research guides created in-house.

“We have so many covering so many topics, and I feel like many could be a game changer for schoolwork,” they added. “It is common for us to offer or reference a research guide when answering questions.”

Similarly, Kilroy touted the use of interlibrary loan.

“You ever find the perfect article for your paper and then lose all hope once you hit a paywall? No more with the help of our interlibrary loan service,” they said. 

Through interlibrary loan, students can request such articles “and we will try to find a library somewhere in the world who can loan you a copy,” Kilroy added—often “within a day.”

And Winter wants students and librarians to engage in a help us-help you sort of relationship. Making use of AskMac, an after-hours, human-created and -informed chatbot, will help librarians improve the service, they said. Similarly, checking out—and requesting new items—from the library’s collection of anatomical models, one among many available collections, will ensure students have the tools they need to learn and grow, Winter said. 

What is your favorite physical space, big or small, within the library? 

These in the know identified areas such as the “little nook we have under the stairwell” to Level 7, as Hamilton did. 

“We have study buddy plushies, foldable lamps, foot pedals, and fans that students can use while studying,” Hamilton noted.

Winter appreciates the leisure reading area along that same stairwell, a “low-key” place to read and/or enjoy library architecture. The Connection Corner on Level 6 also offers a quiet reading spot—or chances to enjoy sky peering through the windows—while still remaining connected to the hum of other people, Winter added.

And, Kilroy said, “there are days where I need to sit in the pitch darkness and utter silence, and nobody’s got me like the reflection rooms on those days.”

“They’re wonderful and worth seeking out when you need to decompress,” Kilroy added.

Find the AskUs desk and its thoughtful staff on Level 6, just off the elevators, outside the writing center, online via chat from the library website or at askus@unmc.edu.   

Three thousand books down, and nearly 8,000 to go. 

Facing McGoogan Library’s rare books collection, Kara Walters does the math. Supporting the inventory of these texts is among Walters’ current projects and is representative of unique opportunities provided to the library’s student workers.

The efforts of students like Walters bear great effects at McGoogan.

Recent and current student workers have catalogued the library’s cache of visual art; photographed and highlighted an assemblage of infant feeders; and organized vast collections of physical media, among other accomplishments, said Darby Kurtz, special collections curator at McGoogan. 

McGoogan Library staff never saddles students with “grunt work” or “busy work,” said Kurtz, who serves both as a sort of hiring manager and overseer for the library’s interns. Rather, when offered a calibrated mixture of trust and guidance, these students prove “integral” to library services, Kurtz added.

What it takes to work at McGoogan Library

Student workers suited for the library display certain common traits, said Carrie Meyer, associate dean of the Robert S. Wigton Department of Special Collections and Archives.

Among them: maturity, curiosity, self-awareness and critical thinking. The daily work of special collections and archives can grow monotonous, Meyer added, and not every student worker will enjoy each assigned task. 

But discovering the work you don’t wish to pursue long-term can be as valuable as identifying the work you do, Meyer said. 

Walters agrees, noting that student workers should have enough wherewithal to recognize what they do and don’t do well. 

And to hear Kurtz tell it, Walters does both big and very small—minuscule, in fact—tasks well. A student worker should also possess attention to detail and prove capable of describing an object “soup to nuts,” she said. 

Kurtz trusts Walters to process a small artifact collection—and “almost” to the same professional degree as Kurtz herself. 

She recalled Walters’ ability to write in tiny but legible language along the edge of a specimen slide.

“This is so beautiful,” Kurtz remembered thinking. “No one’s going to know to look here, but this is so beautiful.” 

How student workers interact with library staff

When student workers begin their tenure at the library, Kurtz introduces them to the collections they’ll attend, then asks gently revealing questions about how they would begin a project. From there, Kurtz regularly meets one-on-one with workers to see how and what they’re up to. 

Walters enjoys observing staff and faculty at their own tasks, noticing their focus and how specialized a librarian’s work can be. 

The work of special collections and archives fits Walters, she said, who’s always looking to remain busy while working independently. With a background in both science and art, Walters processes books in much the same fashion as she paints: with music between her ears, working toward a sort of “flow state.” 

What working at McGoogan can do for students

Kurtz knows that, for students, among the “biggest hurdle(s) in our field” is finding opportunities to do important work while being compensated for their time. If a student quite literally can’t afford to volunteer for a library or museum, often they don’t enter the profession.

Kurtz works from inside national and international groups that advocate for paid work experiences. The library is both a display case for these principles and a place where the conversation is furthered, Kurtz said with clear pride.

Students working here receive help sifting the skills and jobs available to them, Kurtz said. She enjoys coming alongside students to explore the possibilities together.

Walters looks at her experience so far and sees how she’s better prepared for today’s working world, learning everything from how to use widely adopted office programs like Teams and work with a greater independence. 

She’s also seen how a medical campus operates and the various positions that make it go, a boon as she sets her sights on a career in medicine. 

What student workers are up to today

Student work at and on behalf of McGoogan Library continues. Walters isn’t only thousands of volumes deep in the rare books collection; she’s also acquiring annual reports from a variety of UNMC departments and colleges; and she’s processing a collection of obstetric forceps that dates to the 19^th century. 

Other student workers currently assist with exhibit installation and de-installation, Kurtz said, as well as process oral histories and other objects.

Each of these assignments reflects both intention on the part of UNMC’s librarians and an investment of trust in the students whose work proves ever vital.