AARON LUHEAD OF TECHNICAL SERVICESNORTH GEORGIA COLLEGE AND STATE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY TECHNOLOGY CENTERDAHLONEGA, GEORGIA

Raleigh McGarity

September 19, 2009

Education: Bachelors Degree in Education Research from the China Teachers University;Masters Degree in Library and Information Sciences from Florida State University; Masters in Education Research from Florida State University

Aaron has taken all of the necessary courses to receive a PhD, but has not yet finished his dissertation.

Background

Experience: Taught English at a technical college in Shanghai, China; 1 year at Florida State University in the reference section; 11 years at North Georgia College and State University including 5 as the head of technical services

Background

Aaron enjoys working in technical services because of the physical environment of the job and the quiet, laidback atmosphere. Working in technical services gives him the opportunity to work on research that he enjoys so much.

Working in Technical Services

Aaron works in the brand new Library Technology Center at NGCSU. He has a spacious office on the third floor of the beautiful facility that is very neat, but filled with books. His office is somewhat isolated from the rest of the library and the library faculty and staff, but he enjoys that aspect of his job.

The Workplace

Aaron has little to no interaction with patrons and students. He has very little interaction with the other library staff members. He deals with the reference librarians some, but he performs his job on his own for the most part. He spends the majority of his time in his office, performing his job duties.

The Working Environment

Aaron creates records and catalogs the digital and print collection at NGCSU. He processes all problematic books that reference librarians pass along to him. He processes all new material and works on major projects, like relabeling faded labels from the libraries older collection.

Job Description

•Voyager•OCLC Connexion•Worldcat•Uni Catalog

Hardware and Software

The collection that Aaron deals with is typical of a small academic University. It contains books, journals, videos, databases and is connected through Galileo. He has seen the collection move more and more to online. With the failing economy, the library has been hit hard with budget cuts and has seen a money shortage.

NGCSU’s Collection

“Focus on metadata. Devote time in your studies to non-traditional methods of librarianship like studying online databases. I personally don’t like online, but it’s convenient. Each format has it’s own benefit.” -Aaron Lu

Advice

PRESENTER: RALEIGH MCGARITY

CONTACT ME:RMMCGARITY@GMAIL.COM

Valdosta State University, MLIS Program