The Kathryn A. Martin Library is quickly catching up with a backlog of materials awaiting processing, thanks to new Cataloging Librarian Lisa Wheeler, who has been making tremendous progress behind the scenes since beginning work here in February.
With the retirement of Technical Services staff members Deb Johnson and Brenda Bonnema, and the move of TS member Jessica Bellini to Duluth Public Library, the unit had been shorthanded. We were fortunate to be able to hire Connie Anderson, a retired monographic cataloger from the University of Minnesota Twin Cities, to fill in on a temporary basis, but new government documents and other items had been piling up.
That all changed when Lisa came on board. As an experienced cataloger, she is qualified to perform original cataloging and complex copy cataloging of a great variety of library materials. Lisa is also an Ex Libris Certified Alma Administrator, and she can advise us on how to improve our workflows and make local changes to the system so that it works better for us.
Before coming to UMD, Lisa worked as a Metadata Management Librarian at the University of Miami, and before that she worked at ProQuest, first as a Software Support Specialist and then as a Cataloger.
Lisa holds a B.S. in English Literature and in Psychology from Eastern Michigan University, and a Master of Science in Information from the University of Michigan.
"My favorite part of the job has been learning local practices and getting started on a number of different projects," she said.
Lisa has already tackled numerous major projects, including weeding obsolete media, beginning the addition of a large gift collection of American Indian Learning Resource Center materials to the catalog, as well as processing boxes and boxes of government documents. Lisa has utilized features in Alma to quickly remove lost and missing items from the catalog so that it accurately reflects what is available for users.
In light of how quickly Lisa has adapted to UMD and efficiently processed the library materials awaiting cataloging, it is not surprising that she names running as a hobby. She is currently training to run a half marathon, and she enjoys hiking and spending time outdoors.
She likes reading all kinds of books, but mostly fiction. Her favorite authors are Jim Harrison and Haruki Murakami.