Kuhlman

Interview with Ray Walling For my interview, I interviewed Ray Walling, of the Baker University Academic Li rary! Ray is in charge of electronic services and the government information at the li rary, and he has a "!#!I! from the University of "ichigan! $he following essay covers to%ics I discussed with Ray and it will e&%lain his education and %re%aration for his current 'o , his daily activities at the li rary, the %rofessional organi(ations he elongs to, and what he elieves is im%ortant a out those organi(ations! $he first to%ic I discussed with Ray was his education and training he went through to ecome a li rarian! Ray received his Bachelor of Arts from Westminster )ollege, and as I have already mentioned, he received his "asters of #cience and Information from the University of "ichigan! While at "ichigan Ray did what was called a Li rarian Instruction! *e related it to work study on a graduate level! *is Li rarian Instruction was to work at the ac+uisitions and %rocessing %osition at the Law Li rary at "ichigan,s Law #chool! $his gave him a good foundational e&%erience as to how the asic %rocesses in a li rary worked! *e said it really hel%ed him understand the %rocess of how ooks got from ac+uisitions to the shelf! *is ne&t ig ste% in e&%erience was an internshi% he got at the -overnment .ocuments center at "ichigan! At this %osition, Ray got to work under -race /ork, who served as his mentor in the %rogram! #he was an influential %erson in the field of -overnment .ocuments and Ray stated one of the first to create a we %ortal to house -overnment .ocuments! $his internshi% was im%ortant to Ray ecause this was when he decided that -overnment .ocuments was the field that he wanted to e in, and that when he looked for 'o s later in life, they would have to include some sort of -overnment .ocuments %rogram! Another %art of Ray,s education that %re%ared him for his 'o at Baker University was a -raduate #tudent Instructor %osition he had, which he com%ared to a $A %osition at other schools! *e said that the -#I was so im%ortant ecause it taught him how to teach, which he now does at Baker University! $he second to%ic I discussed with Ray was his day0to0day activities at Baker,s li rary! $he two main com%onents of Ray,s 'o at the li rary are the -overnment .ocuments and the electronic resources! Ray is in charge of managing the -overnment .ocuments collection and oversees it,s usage y the student ody! Ray is also in charge of the electronic resources! *e manages the online collection of 'ournals, %eriodicals, and other resources that Baker University has access to! $he other %ositions that Ray fills at

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the li rary are teaching, eing a de%artment liaison, and hel%ing with daily li rary o%erations! Ray mainly teaches information literacy courses within Baker,s -eneral 1ducation %rogram, ut has also taught s%ecial courses for the de%artments he works with! Ray,s .e%artment Liaison %osition mainly serves to hel% the other de%artments with %ro%erly utili(ing all the resources the li rary has to offer! $he daily o%erations that Ray hel%s with are smaller things like working on the li rary,s we site or taking shifts at the reference desk! $he most im%ortant thing that Ray made clear to me in this %art of the interview was that even though he is in charge of multi%le collections and can make decisions on how to use them, when working for a li rary at the %rofessional level he never has total control over everything! *e always has to s%eak with other %eo%le in the de%artment or other li rarians, he stated that when it comes to decisions a out collections, every stakeholder has a say in the decision! $he third to%ic Ray and I discussed was the %rofessional organi(ations he elongs to and why he elieves those organi(ations are im%ortant! $he organi(ations that Ray elongs to are the American Li rary Association 2ALA3, the Association of )ollege Research Li raries 2A)RL3, and the Kansas Li rary Association 2KLA3! Ray also elongs to s%ecific grou%s and %ositions within these organi(ations! Within the ALA, Ray is on the -overnment .ocuments round ta le! For the KLA, Ray is the vice chair of the -overnment .ocuments round ta le, %art of the 4rivate Academic Li rary section, and %art of the )ollege and University Li rary section! Ray thought the most im%ortant thing a out elonging to these organi(ations was the enefits you can get from them! "ost of these enefits revolved around attending their conferences! #uch enefits were intermingling with colleagues, scholarshi% %ossi ilities, 'o offers, and networking with %eo%le in your field! Ray also mentioned that you could get enefits away from the conferences as well! $he main enefit was staying in the loo% of what others were doing in your s%ecific field, like seeing what other %rofessionals were %u lishing a out your field of interest! $he est advice the Ray gave me during the interview involving %rofessional organi(ations was to start small and 'oin smaller organi(ations that are focused to uild a re%utation, and grow from that small start! .uring my interview with Ray I learned a lot5 how focused education is im%ortant to %re%are you for that field later in life, what the daily o%erations of an academic li rary are, and the enefits you can get from %rofessional organi(ations! *owever, none of those were the most im%ortant thing I took away from my interview! What I got most from this

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interview was the confidence gained from talking to a %rofessional that has went through what I am going through now, and it has made me feel etter a out the %rofession as a whole!