Going Global.... (Part 2)

Earlier this week, I wrote about some of the projects that I’ve started to work on as part of the I & O Department. Here is the (brief) continuation of my discussion of “Going Global” at Duke Libraries:

On Monday (I know, that seems like ages ago), Aisha Harvey, the Head of Collection Development at Perkins Library, introduced Jake, Diane, Emily, and me to the WorldCat Collection Analysis tool. First of all, it was cool to meet Aisha! We also got a good overview of the tool’s rich functionalities and discussed a few of the bumps that we might experience along the way. Diane and I will be working on analyzing Duke’s global health collection by creating subject profiles, comparing our collections to our peers’, and developing some sort of collection development plan from there. Since global health is necessarily interdisciplinary, it might be a little tricky to formulate our subject profiles (we’ll probably have to piece together call number ranges... and maybe some other stuff... I’m going to check out what’s posted here, but if any of you readers have had experience with this, please let us know!). I’m sure we’ll be able to work out the kinks, and I’m looking forward to getting into the WCA system and seeing what it can do for us. Part of the reason I applied for this field experience was to gain some collection development experience; I think this project looks promising! It’s also pretty rad to be learning alongside Diane and Emily, who are uniquely gifted mentors. Again, stayed tuned for updates.

One final thought on my Going Global rant:
Another aspect of Going Global is inviting international students into the Duke community. Working with international students and growing increasingly sensitive to their needs in an academic library setting is something that I’ve been interested in for several years. Emily Daly is working with colleagues on making sure that international students are getting the attention they deserve at Perkins. As a burgeoning librarian, it is inspiring to see the Going Global theme not only pushing out toward the rest of the world, but also working within our lives here in the United States. I know I’ve just started at Perkins, and only part-time, but I’m totally looking forward to going global right here in Instruction and Outreach. Wish me luck!