As we move into the holiday season, Himmelfarb Library is excited to announce some changes and growth within our team. We are pleased to introduce our new colleague and to celebrate a well-deserved new role for one of our own.
Please join us in welcoming Joseph McGraw, Serials Librarian to the Himmelfarb Library family. We look forward to working with him. Please take a minute to get to know him.
Share your path to Himmelfarb Library.
I’ve been on a journey through a few academic libraries before landing at Himmelfarb. Most recently, I was the Interlibrary Loan Librarian at Fogler Library at the University of Maine. Also at U Maine, I worked in the Research and Instruction Department (confusingly similar to the Shakespeare Library in DC so much that we got their emails sometimes). Before that I was the Student Employee Supervisor and Multimedia Manager at West Virginia University’s Downtown Campus Library, which was my first full-time library job after graduate school. I graduated from the School of Information and Library Science at the University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill in 2020 and graduated from the University of Virginia in 2014. In between, I managed KFC and Pizza Hut restaurants in North Carolina.
Tell us about your position at Himmelfarb and what you do.
I am the new Serials Librarian at Himmelfarb, only starting at the beginning of September. I manage the library’s online journal collection, working with other librarians in making decisions on which journal resources to buy as well as troubleshooting any problems that patrons have accessing the material.
What do you enjoy most about your position?
I love being part of the academic life of a library at such a great university. Universities like this is where I feel at home. Since I’m so new to the position, I’m not sure what’s my favorite part of the job yet, but I’m looking forward to digging into projects at the library and becoming more familiar with the serials collection and all my great new coworkers.
What do you like to do in your time away from work?
I play a lot of Dungeons and Dragons, at least twice a week. I’ve also gotten back into golf this summer and I’ve been trying to play at least weekly this summer. I’m also a big sports fan and I could talk about the Celtics or Arsenal all day, if you let me.
Where are you from originally, and what brought you to the DC area?
Originally, I am from Tazewell, Virginia which is in very far Southwest Virginia along the border with West Virginia and close to Kentucky. I’ve moved around a fair bit, living in North Carolina, West Virginia, and Maine. I moved to the DC area in summer 2023 after my partner got a job in the area and I really love it so far!
In addition to welcoming new members, we are proud to announce that Brittany Smith has moved in to the position of Scholarly Communications and Metadata Librarian. Let’s sit down and chat with Brittany.
Congratulations on your new position! What would you say has been the best part of your experience in the transition to Scholarly Communications and Metadata Librarian?
Thank you so much! I think the best and also challenging part of the transition has been delving deeper with the library systems and programs that we use. In my previous position, I primarily used our systems to label and process new books or equipment. I worked with our institutional repository to import new monthly publications. But now I’m learning about other features that will help me as a librarian as I tackle complex cataloging and scholarly communications projects. It’s exciting and I enjoy changes to my normal responsibilities, but it is also a lot to learn and remember.
Have there been any hurdles in adjusting to the role?
No, I would say it has been a seamless transition. Fortunately, I worked closely with Sara Hoover, the librarian who previously filled this position, for close to five years. In that time, Sara gradually trained me in more complex librarian-adjacent tasks and I learned a lot by asking questions, doing self-learning in my downtime or shadowing Sara and the other Himmelfarb librarians. There are some skills I hope to improve over the years, but I feel that I had an easy time moving from my previous position into this new role.
What is your favorite service that the library has to offer?
The 3D printer! I recently submitted a print job for a piece of equipment to replace a broken piece at home. My mom had a difficult time finding a replacement part in stores and I thought the 3D printer at the library may be able to help. I haven’t tested our printer yet, but it is nice to know that I can print obscure pieces that may be difficult to purchase online. And I would love to use the printer for other jobs in the future.
What has been your favorite project to work on at Himmelfarb?
I would say my favorite project so far was acquiring a button maker machine to make our own pronoun buttons for the library. This was a project that the DEI (Diversity, Equity and Inclusion) Committee worked on for a while and finally revealed at orientation this year. Right now we use the machine to refill our pronoun buttons stock at the circulation desk. The students at orientation seemed to enjoy the button maker machine; some even asked if they could make their own buttons during orientation. The machine and our supply of buttons are a simple way to encourage others to be mindful of a person’s pronouns. Plus, it’s fun using the actual machine; it breaks up the work day and it’s a good upper body workout!
Do you have any favorite hobbies that you like to do when you have downtime?
In the spring and summer, I tend to hike a lot. I mostly stick to trails and parks in Virginia but I have explored a few in DC and Maryland. Roosevelt Island is a short, no elevation circuit trail that I enjoy. Great Falls is another good hiking spot around here; it was one of the first parks I visited when I started hiking. I also keep a vegetable and herb garden. I tend to grow tomatoes, eggplants, kale and lavender. When the cooler weather starts (like now), I stick to indoor activities. Unsurprisingly, I read a lot. My first masters degree is in Creative Writing and I spend a lot of time writing mostly fantasy and science fiction stories; recently I also decided to write personal essays. I play video games and I have a monthly table-top role-playing game night with some friends. Last but not least, wWhat is your favorite book and why?
This is a tough question and I’m going to cheat a bit by giving more than one book. It’s a close tie between The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin and A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine. A runner-up would be Royal Assassin by Robin Hobb. All three books are genuinely some of the best fiction I’ve ever read and these authors are brilliant storytellers that inspire me when I’m telling my own stories. These books all belong to a series and I think it’s worth reading the full series if possible, especially the Jemisin one. Last, there is a twist in The Fifth Season that I believe every sci-fi/fantasy reader should experience and enjoy.
