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I truly enjoy my current position. I work at a small library, with a full time staff of only eight people and volumes totaling 140,000. However, Marymount College is part of Fordham University. Therefore, we are part of the Fordham Libraries and depend upon the staff at Fordham's other campuses for many functions, including inter-campus loans. Several of my colleagues are nuns and all of them are truly nice people. My commute to work is about ten minutes on foot and about forty-five seconds via automoble. Working on a college campus, helping students and professors, I feel very fortunate to have a job that I enjoy.
I have a wide range of responsibilities and have found a position that satisfies many of my needs. I have learned a great deal about how libraries work and about a range of issues from reference to acquisitions to circualtion. In my supervisor's opinion, my real gift is for teaching, presenting, and working with people directly. I have led a bibliographic instruction sessoin, but more frequently I help solve patrons' questions. I can explain concepts in a manner that is easily understood.
On a daily basis, I help supervise the circulation functions. In this role, I address daily issues and problems that our student workers can not address. I make extensive use of my judgment, experience, and technology savvy to determine the causes of problems. One of my strengths is my determination to follow through and to fix problems. In some cases, collaboration is called for, in other cases technology fixes suffice, and in yet other cases processes need to be changed. I consider the implications of daily problems and address those implications with my colleagues. In filling a supervisor's role, I train students and patrons. I tend to explain my reasoning in clear language and always try to keep a sense of humor.
At the Marymount Library, I am responsible for ERes (pronounced e-rehz), our electronic reserves system. ERes allows students to access course materials 24 hours a day via the Internet. The success of ERes can be measured by the widespread use of the system, the repeat users of the system, and the ease of use of the system. I receive course materials in person and via e-mail.
In addition, I spend a great deal of time on traditional reserves, circulation, and interlibrary loans. I have become familiar to professors and gained a reputation for helping others. One student described as "so precious," while another student called me and my colleagues "the best librarians in the world." Some patrons insist on dealing with me rather than with the reference librarians.
My management style is an approachable one. I train student workers on a contnuing basis. I then give them a lot of responsibility and allow them to try to solve problems on their own. I am always approachable to the student workers, I encourage questions, and I thank our student workers regularly for their work. Sometimes, I must check the quality of their work.
As an adult and a supervisor, I try to set an example for patrons and staff. I keep a sense of responsibility in mind regularly, while maintaining a rapport and sense of humor. Others notice that I am willing to do nearly any task, within reason, that is asked of me. Sharpening pencils, reading shelves, sweeping up broken glass, moving equipment and stamping due dates are all part of my job.
With good reason, some patrons have described Greenwich Library as a place to which many librarians and library patrons should make a pilgrimige. The library is well funded and beautifully designed. I worked at Greenwich on a part time basis was very happy working here. I was nearly offered a full time position. However, the hiring process dragged on because of town hiring procedures.
My responsibilities included sorting many books that were returned from the various branches of the Greenwich Library System. I vividly recall finding missing CDs, checking in books, lifting heavy bags, and pushing carts filled with library materials. The job required determination and effort. I took pride in the quality of my work and my relationships with colleagues and patrons. I also was involved in the "bookmobile," a method of delivering books to patrons who could not visit the library. I also solved daily problems, such as paper jams and questionable fines and due dates. While I was working, I was often asked by patrons to explain how desensitizing books worked.
When I joined the part time staff of the Greenwich Library, I did not consider working there as a full timer. I changed my mind because I enjoyed responding to the changing demands and making order out of chaos. I truly enjoyed the variety of my work, the physicality of it, and the banter with my colleagues. Eventually I realized that I was happy working there.
Although this job convinced me to leave business and market research for libraries, I had many positive experiences at Cox Target Media. I got many opportunities to work with clients and salespeople and to give presentations to them. My presentations made me feel terrific.
I gained my primary knowledge of market research from my colleague Joanne Kash. My primary responsibility was to help advertisers to target consumers with direct mail. We used a vendor called Spectra to help us develop geo-demographic profiles of consumers. People who resemble one another demographically tend to live near one another. I analyzed the purchase behavior of consumers by brand, category, and region. I selected the geographies, or "zones", for our organization to mail envelopes containing particular assortments of coupons and samples. Rather than blanketing a region with ads, I used data to target those ads to zones and households most likely to act upon those ads. I also analyzed the success or failure of our mailings. I answered questions such as what percentage of consumers used the coupons? Did consumers purchase more of a brand or product? I continue to value Joanne's wisdom, kindness, understanding, and sense of humor. Joanne taught me about many sources that market researchers used, the strengths and limitations of those sources, and methods of analyzing data.
As in all corproate market research positions, I was continually asked for data and assistance, which is both good and bad. This job taught me how to refine information requests, and how to prioritize.
By the time I quit my job, many things about my job had changed. First, while I was continuing to learn, the organization was not focused on my professional development. Second, I realized that I was not performing a function that was valuable to anyone other than salespeople and large corporate advertisers. I wanted to devote my energies and talents to a purpose that I considered more noble. Third, the organization was based in Largo, Florida. Advancement would depend upon moving from Connecticut to Florida. Fourth, rumors, which later proved true, indicated that the company might soon close our office. Fifth, the job made me terribly unhappy and unfulfilled. I was running on a treadmill that was broken, poorly maintained, and unstable. I took my frustrations home with me and had difficulty letting them go.
I worked in the personal care appliances division, which marketed hair dryers, curling irons, and hair cutting kits in the U.S., primarily via mass merchandisers (such as Walmart and Kmart) and drug stores (such as CVS and Rite Aide). I was hired to perform all of the work associated with category management projects for Conair's retail customers. Since I was the only full time market researcher in the entire organization, which had revenues of $1 billion, other responsibilities also kept me busy. I designed, analyzed, and summarized the results of questionnaires about new produts. I spent the majority of my time providing data to marketing managers and salespeople in Powerpoint presentations and spreadsheets. I gained expertise with Powerpoint and Excel in the process. The primary figure that interested managers was market share. I left this position in order to learn more about market research, performing more detailed analyses and more valuable research sources, at Cox Target Media. In addition, Cox Target Media offered me a substantial salary increase.
This position was my first job after college. As an intern, I spent most of my days in the UN's libraries, which was a sign of things to come. Although I have held a few secretarial and short term jobs between the UN and Conair, most of them were insignificant to my professional development.
At the UN, I worked for a department that was focused on sustainable developmet, balancing economic development, population growth, and environmental protection. I collected articles, designed charts. and edited a report. I also collected information, which I later put into database-like fields, on legal agreements on internationally shared river basins. In this job, I became very familiar with librarians, as I continually read law review articles, environmental articles, economics articles, and treaties. The librarians were all friendly and welcoming.