Friday Focus: People Making a Difference in Collins Library – Wade Guidry
jmkyoung | March 19, 2010
Wade Guidry joined Collins Library staff in June 2009, as the Library Applications Administrator. Wade grew up in Houston, TX and he is an alum of Rice University (another small, liberal arts school). His “Northwest Exposure” includes 8 years in the San Juan Islands and 5 years on the Oregon coast, in addition to stints in Seattle and Portland. Wade worked for a successful network hardware startup company in Washington during the tech boom of the 90’s, has spent a few years at Microsoft, and has 9 years of library experience in the San Juan Island Library and the Coastal Resource Sharing Network. Outside the library, Wade says he enjoys surfing, cats, art and animal advocacy.
What is your primary role at Collins Library?
My primary role at the library is to identify, implement and support computer applications and technology that enhance the library’s ability to deliver its services. Currently, these applications include:
- Simon, our library catalog
- Consortia and WorldCat-related platforms, including: WorldCat, ILLiad, Ariel
- Subject / research guides platforms, such as Library a la Carte
- DSpace and ContentDM, our digital collections and repository platforms
- Our Electronic Resources Management (ERM) system for tracking ejournal content
- A variety of “programmatic” web development efforts such as RSS feeds, public catalog interface, statistics delivery, and WorldCat API applications
- SerialsSolutions 360, our open link resolver
What are some of the projects you are currently working on?
The projects I’m busiest on right now involve digital collections. We are making more and more resources available online. Some of these include the establishment of a digital archive for the Arches magazine, a Master’s Theses repository for the School of Occupational Therapy, and a repository for student undergraduate research. We’re also working on a hosted Puget Sound collection to be available within the ARTstor image collection.
What do you see in the future of libraries?
Though I don’t currently use them, I’m starting to come around to the idea of eBook technology. I think eBooks are still very early in terms of the development and adoption cycle. But similar to the way in which digital distribution has become the dominant paradigm in music, digital distribution will become the dominant paradigm for the written word. The iPod came out in 2001, and I personally haven’t bought music in physical form for probably 2 years (except for used discs). The Kindle came out in 2008. By 2015, will I have purchased my last new book in physical form?
Open scholarship is another “technology” that I think will impact academic libraries greatly over the next decade. Just as digital distribution has put a lot of pressure on the business models of more pedestrian content (opinion, music, news, classified); it’s also putting a lot of pressure on academic scholarship. As prices continue to skyrocket for electronic subscription to leading peer-reviewed academic journals, the academic community is starting to arm itself with easy-to-use web-based publishing platform tools and publishing and reviewing their work freely, in the spirit of creative commons, using a variety of licensing models. In fact, the fastest growing segment of our own ejournal collection is in open access journals. (This relates to a lot of the digital content projects we are working on in the Library)
A third area of rapid change is in the aggregation of services previously delivered locally. Many services traditionally run and managed locally, such as collections, databases, and search and discovery platforms, are now being aggregated into regional, national, and international platforms. Specific examples include the northwest regional Orbis-Cascade Alliance of which Puget Sound is a member, the ILLiad resource sharing platform, and Google and other search engines. In a way, this changes the role of the library from focusing on local resource management to focusing on service delivery and education.
Favorite technology application or interest?
I graduated from college before PCs became prevalent. So, as a “non-digital native”, I still find most technologies pretty intriguing. Lately, I’ve been playing around with my new Canon S90 camera and getting more into photography and image editing. I’m also becoming a streaming media enthusiast. I’ve been using Windows Media Center for the past view years for watching and recording TV, and also for listening to and managing my music collection. And I’m now giving the Zune music subscription service a trial run, and may soon “rent” rather than “own” most of the music to which I listen.
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Don’t miss the beautiful voices of the A capella singing group this Friday, March 5, 2010, 4:00-4:30pm in the Collins library reading room. You’ll want to hear these gals – it’s going to be fantastic! The group called “What She Said” is made up of 11 student singers: Audra de Laveaga, Marissa Ryder, Amy Jones, Lana McMullen, Cailin Fuller, Shani Cohen, Mercedes Curran, Emily Jarecki, Rachel Yaron, Carolyn Campbell, Becca Adams.
Digital Schomburg
