Lisa A. Raney

Things have been a little busy since arriving back in town from ALA's Midwinter Meeting in January: almost as soon as I set foot back in town, most of my free time was devoted to an interview process with an out-of-state library in addition to extra hours I had picked up in my library's Outreach Department and later, my own department, as well as providing weekly tutoring at Chase Elementary. This spring and summer has been largely devoted to volunteering within my community and learning about entrepreneurship and starting a small business. I am preparing to offer freelance information services when I return from the ALA Annual Conference in Chicago in July.

To expand a little on the above...

The interview process that I referred to above culminated with me being flown to the university for an on-site interview. It was very exciting, and a great experience during which I met some very friendly people. However, it was not meant to be, and so I remain in Cincinnati working in my part-time position in the Genealogy and Local History Department.

I primarily put together deposit collections in the Outreach Department -- some of the larger ones were 300 and 190 book deposit collections for correctional facilities, and there were also some smaller teacher collections and collections for convents.

In my own department, we spent the spring adding more points-of-interest to our Panorama, and currently have a very fun exhibit in our Rare Books and Special Collections room of prints displaying new "American Style" from the turn of the century, especially many produced by Currier and Ives. I proofed many of the new Points of Interest and the labels for the exhibit, spent a great deal of time helping to fine-tune our Veteran's History Project by fact-checking and verifying information for close to 400 vets, putting together countless binds and tracking down missing periodical issues, and have been busy checking in the hundreds of books we've received to the department in the past few weeks!

More to come about my adventures in community work later!

Picking up extra hours at work the past few weeks has given me the opportunity to spend more time working on my off-desk duties. One of these involves assisting one of the librarians in my department with our library’s contributions to the Library of Congress’ Veteran’s History Project. What I’ve been doing so far is watching oral history interviews that we've collected from area veterans and creating recording logs before we send them off to the Library of Congress. It’s a pretty straight forward task, but involves paying close attention to details along with analysis and research.

I was not exactly thrilled going into this project. Watching videos from men who have gone to war, wielded weapons, and possibly taken other peoples’ lives was not something that was on the top of my priority list. I am a pacifist, and one of the things I’ve always felt very strongly about and is still a large part of my life is to be a peacemaker. Make love, not war, and all that. This made me an oddball history major in college, being more interested in the sociological and cultural underpinnings of events while the majority of my classmates would pore over the intricacies of wars and military history. This aversion may have had something to do with being dragged out to numerous military and aviation museums, sites, and bases as a child, but I digress.

However, I knew that regardless of my personal feelings, I could do the work and would do a good job at it. That was a non-issue. And I knew, from my training in history, library science, and archives, that it is incredibly important to document the individual stories of those who have witnessed events firsthand while they are still alive to tell them. It gives a broader scope of history and I feel validates the experience of each individual veteran. It gives a more authentic account of the events rather than what's in the history books.  

What I did not expect was to enjoy it as much as I have been. These oral histories are incredibly important and I'm finding it very moving to watch them. There is so much humanity in them, as well as a whole heck of a lot of history. I hope everyone gets a chance to hear them, even if just one. And on that same note, I hope these are the last stories anyone ever has to tell about going to war. Some of the things I learn are truly heartbreaking that at times I have to press pause and take a breather before finishing the segment.

There was a WWII Air Forces vet who talked about segregation, not being promoted, and having guns pointed on him by his superiors during target practice simply because he was the “wrong” color. Another one is not an interview, but a documentary created by a vet, using footage shot while stationed in the China Burma India (CBI) theater during World War II as the backdrop to an incredibly informative story. The vet whose interview I’m currently working on has a lilting Scottish accent and has me amazed by all he’s seen by the age of 18, first with the British Merchant Marines and then with the U.S. Navy in World War II.

Some vets whose videos I've worked on so far:

Morgan Russell Deane
Victor M. Shepherd, Jr.
Herbert Blasberg
David Alfred Murray

I will soon be helping out with video editing in addition to my work with the oral history interviews. This project is important and necessary, and has given me perspective from both a personal and professional standpoint. I never say never because I don't like unnecessarily limiting myself, and this project is definitely proof of that. There is value and chance to growth to be found just about anywhere if you only open yourself to it.

I've been in the Genealogy and Local History Department for about a month now. One thing I can say is that it keeps me on my toes: I have a variety of responsibilities which is something that I enjoy. Plus, we have at least three card catalogs in my department.

I have scheduled desk hours and scheduled hours in the Cincinnati Room. When I'm on desk, I'm answering phone and e-mail reference. I use electronic resources (databases and internet) and our extensive collection to answer genealogical and local history questions. And I really do use all of these. I’m finding myself going between our Ancestry Library database, Google, city directories, and running down in the stacks for yearbooks and other materials - often times in a single day.

The Cincinnati Room is where our Rare Books and Special Collection is housed. This role is more structured, as I follow standards and procedures for rare books and fetch items from our rare books when needed. Of course, sometimes patrons just come in to view our exhibits. Right now we have an exhibit on music competitions/choir games to accompany the World Choir Games. Exhibits are rotated quarterly, but the jewels of the room are the Audobon elephant folio and the panorama.


The panorama is a series of 8 daguerreotype photo plates taken of Cincinnati in 1848 by Charles Fontayne and William Porter. It underwent conservation work in 2006, and during the process the images were digitized. One of the things that impresses me most is that these images can be enlarged up to 32x its original size without losing their clarity. We have the original daguerreotype plates on display along with a touchscreen monitor where visitors can enlarge any part of the image. Reference librarians added points of interest to the image, which adds historical context. You can view it here, though some of the plates are much darker on the site.

My off-desk duties include assisting the librarian who is in charge of our library's contributions to the Veteran's History Project. I've been creating video logs of oral history interviews we've collected. I'm also in charge of checking in books to the collection and will soon be working with periodicals and serials.

Genealogy is a very interesting field, but a tough one because it takes a lot of curiousity, thoroughness, thoughtfulness, and persistence. This is important in all reference work, to be sure, but the sources used in genealogical work are not as cut and dry as a lot of other research. A lot of our collection isn't in the open stacks, some isn't in our catalog, and it's all over - literally. Some of the questions are easier than others (for i.e. "Can you scan and send me pages 401-402 from such-and-such book" v. "Can you tell me when my family moved or something else with this little information that I have?") A lot of what I've been doing is trying to rewire my brain to think of all the possible places something could be. There are a lot of inconsistencies due to human error, human flaw, some things indexed, some things not, some things we have and some things that other places have.

Hello world! My apologies for the lack of updates the past few months. I have finished out my Homework Help Aide position for the school year, have been interviewing a lot, and have been helping my best friend plan her wedding (which is just two weeks away!). 

My big news is that I will be starting a new position in a week. I’m very happy to be staying with the library system I have been with since last year – but will now be working with genealogy and local history collections. The position is right up my alley, owing to my undergraduate degree in history, experience working with archival collections, and experience conducting genealogical research in my free time. I’m excited about the opportunities for collaboration with other departments and organizations throughout the city, special projects (the big one is the Veterans History Project), and increased responsibility that come with this position. I’ve also been hearing great things about the department as a whole and look forward to writing more about this position and projects in the near future.

I have been focusing a lot on my career and professional interests lately. I left my weekend retail position in order to look for a part-time job where I can utilize my reference and research skills since my new position in genealogy and local history is part-time. I started volunteering for Radical Reference, and am working with another SRRT member in an effort to resurrect the now-defunct Alternative Media Task Force. I won’t be able to make it to ALA Annual due to the aforementioned wedding, but will be at Midwinter 2013 in Seattle. It is my hope to have something for AMTF planned for MW13. 

I’ve taken a much-needed “staycation” this past week aside from wedding-related outings. This has consisted of doing some of my favorite things: catching up on reading, cooking, yoga, jogging, painting, playing guitar, and spending time with friends and family. My next projects to tackle are working on my portfolio, adding more projects to this site, and compiling information on best practices in reference services – especially applying critical theory to information services.

photo credit: me, edited in instagram photo app.

This past week was a fantastic work week, with Thursday being the icing on the proverbial cake. Because there are so many different roles a librarian plays, no day is ever the same. I find this to be especially true in public libraries.

Some background: I have my MLS, but currently work 3-hourshifts in a literacy outreach position with children. I help with homework,interact with the children through educational and fun games, pose a question each Thursday for discussion and/or written reflection, and assist the Children’s Librarian with weekly programming. Since I am embedded within the children’s space in the library, I often get pulled away by library patrons and will help them with reference questions if I am not working with a student. There's a lot of flux in this position, but it’s something that keeps me on my toes and allows me to interact with the community. It also gives me unique insights into the user experience.

On Thursday, I started my shift by chatting with two of my regulars who were already sitting at my regular table when I walked in. One of them showed me her report card, and I noted that she had brought her grades up in two classes and is now rocking all A’s with the exception of a B in Music. They left soon after, and from there I assisted a child with the Early Literacy Station.Because there were no children in my area other than the one on the ELS, I decided to do a quick sweep of the library and found a student who needed help with math. We read over the instructions and went over the example problem a few times. From there we walked her through a few problems until she started to get a hang of them (V=Bh).

After that, I returned to the children’s area and started a student on a Spiderman jigsaw puzzle. I checked up on the girls with their homework (math finished, science not), and waved goodbye to one of my regulars as she left for the day.

I was pulled away to help a child find and unlock the bathroom. When he came back up, I spoke with his mother and discovered that he had homework that he needed help with. It was a double-sided worksheet on which he had to circle triangles and circles. When we finished the homework, we started working on the Spiderman puzzle that the child I had worked with earlier hadn’t had time to finish.

Another boy joined us. He was focused on cutting out and assembling a paper bus, which he later gave me as a present. The three of us chatted and discussed my Thursday question of the day.

I spent the good part of the next hour going back and forth between helping the boy with his jigsaw puzzle and his brother who was using the Early Literacy Station, helping him close out of games and providing instruction on maneuvering the mouse.

That made up the rest of my afternoon - except for when I assisted the boy who had earlier been cutting out buses. He needed help on the computers, too.

Somewhere in those three hours, I had the opportunity to meet one of my regular student’s older sisters, had brief conversations with library patrons and co-workers, and read an Encyclopedia article about cephalopods.

This video was created this past summer by the kids who came in for Brain Camps during the "Creative Media" week. It's great because it showcases their creativity and personalities (we always had great groups of kids come in) and also gives an overview of Homework Central.

I continue to provide the same services shown in this video as sole Homework Help Aide at a branch library within the system. I am stationed in the children's area of my branch where I am constantly on-the-move with my toolbox of supplies (provided by Homework Central).