Running head: AN INTERVIEW WITH MARY WALSH 1

An Interview with Mary Walsh:

Adams State University’s Cataloging and Acquisitions Librarian

Amy Currier

Emporia State University

AN INTERVIEW WITH MARY WALSH 2

An Interview with Mary Walsh:

Adams State University’s Cataloging and Acquisitions Librarian

Our mutual service on the Marmot Library Network’s Union Catalog Committee inspired

me to interview Cataloging and Acquisitions Librarian Mary Walsh, as I knew little about Ms.

Walsh or her role at Adams State University’s (ASU) Nielsen Library in Alamosa, CO. This

changed when Ms. Walsh graciously met with me via Zoom on 1 June 2018. Our conversation

centered mainly on Ms. Walsh’s career and current position, with some discussion of the larger

scope of academic librarianship.

I began our conversation by expressing curiosity about Ms. Walsh’s history with

librarianship. Interestingly, she was a member of the second Colorado SLIM cohort. Since then,

her career has been lengthy and varied; Ms. Walsh has worked in many aspects of librarianship,

with the exceptions of government documents and circulation management. However, Ms.

Walsh considers herself a nursing librarian. Her second position was at a hospital library in

Colorado Springs. While in this job, Ms. Walsh became fascinated with assisting both clinicians

and nursing students; she enjoyed the research aspects and time spent working with students.

After leaving this position, Ms. Walsh worked for 12 years at CU Denver’s Health Sciences

Library.

Ms. Walsh’s dual enjoyment of students and research helped prompt her choice of

academic librarianship, and she has worked for ASU for 14 years. Originally, the Nielsen

Library needed a nursing librarian in conjunction with ASU’s fledgling nursing program. This

was primarily a reference position, with collection development responsibilities. Ms. Walsh also

worked with resource sharing before transitioning to her current position. When asked, she said

her favorite part of academic librarianship is working with students. She stated, “Students are
AN INTERVIEW WITH MARY WALSH 3

like sponges; [they] really want to know.” Alternately, her least favorite aspect of the job is

helping students cite resources.

I inquired about Ms. Walsh’s duties as the Cataloging and Acquisitions Librarian, which

transcend student assistance. While Ms. Walsh has not received much formal training in

cataloging – doing mainly copy cataloging – the job has long intrigued her. She enjoys indexing

and sees the two practices’ similarities; she mused, “It all fits together: information and how

people access it.” Ms. Walsh also manages print and electronic book acquisitions for the Nielsen

Library using Gobi. I followed this up by asking what patron needs drive her acquisitions

process, and Ms. Walsh had two answers. First, “students [should be] able to utilize [the new

materials] in their course work,” so the items must be academically valuable. Second, Ms. Walsh

believes that “providing fun stuff,” like a popular reading collection, may help with both student

retention and employee job satisfaction.

Ms. Walsh’s position also entails liaison responsibilities, and when asked, she noted these

are “ever shifting.” Along with teacher education and art, Ms. Walsh remains the nursing

department liaison. This “established connection” entails informing the department of the

library’s services, performing collection development, and providing instruction. However, Ms.

Walsh knows ASU’s faculty well enough to buy materials for a variety of programs, bypassing

some of the more formal liaison avenues. Ms. Walsh stressed the importance of “casual

conversations.” These relationships allow her to reach out to faculty for recommendations.

Ms. Walsh volunteered information on two unrelated programs that she found enjoyable.

One was starting a seed library in tandem with various community groups. This allowed her to

learn many new things and also created thriving community connections. She also helped
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implement a program where therapy dogs visit the library and are available to students once a

month.

Looking away from her job, I asked Ms. Walsh what issues she foresees impacting

academic librarianship. She stated the most troubling matter is the need to “prove [the library’s]

worth, our value.” The library consumes money, and “we’re not a money maker.” Ms. Walsh

observed that the question becomes how to transform the “esoteric idea [that the library provides

value to the university] and make it tangible and reportable.” The Association of College and

Research Library’s (2018) Standards for Libraries in Higher Education reiterate this, listing a

concern of “increasing demands for accountability within the academy” (p. 6). For now, the

Nielsen Library tries to address this concern and demonstrate value by collecting a variety of

data and statistics.

To conclude our conversation, I requested that Ms. Walsh summarize librarianship’s

heart in a single word. She promptly replied, “Librarianship is about compassion.” Everything

that librarians do demonstrates “caring about [patrons’] needs.” When we do our jobs well, we

are “caring about fellow human beings.” I resonated strongly with Ms. Walsh’s positive

comment. Regardless of what quotidian duties library jobs entail or what challenges academic

librarianship may face, these daily acts of compassion will always be needed.
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References

Association of College and Research Libraries. (2018, February 12). Standards for libraries in

higher education. Retrieved from

http://www.ala.org/acrl/sites/ala.org.acrl/files/content/standards/slhe.pdf