Role at DUL: Principal Cataloger
Library/Department: Resource Description Department, DUL Collections Services
Location: Smith Warehouse, Bay 10
Years at Duke: 24 years
In a nutshell, what do you do at Duke University Libraries?
I work with catalogers in Resource Description and beyond to make sure our cataloging is up to date with changing international standards, assess what training may be needed, and try to keep our catalog data as clean and consistent as possible. I’m also the catalog librarian for monographs in Spanish, Portuguese, and other languages of Iberia and Latin America, plus assorted other languages (lately lots of Turkish and Polish). I also work on some special cataloging projects for the Rubenstein Library.
If you had to pick one thing, what’s the best part of your job?
I love the variety of materials that come across my desk. In a single morning, I might catalog a beautifully illustrated exhibition catalog of Brazilian textiles, then a scholarly treatise on Basque grammar, and then an X-Men comic. I never know what’s going to come next, and I still find that fun and challenging after 31 years.
What’s the best thing you’ve read/watched/listened to recently?
- Read: I just finished and loved David Sedaris’ new book The Land and Its People. Now I’m rereading Anita Loos’ Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, which still makes me laugh out loud on every page even though I’ve read it a dozen times.
- Watched: I’m enjoying a Netflix comedy series from Spain called Alpha Males (Machos Alfa) and have also been binge rewatching 30 Rock. We watch a lot of cooking competition shows at our house – I especially love anything with Aarti Sequeira, Damaris Phillips, Carla Hall, or Bryan Voltaggio.
- Listened To: I listen to a lot of jangle pop/alternative/power pop from the ’80s and early ’90s. Lately I’ve been in a Paul Heaton mood, so I’ve been listening to his greatest hits compilation The Last King of Pop.
What do you like most about living in The Triangle?
I probably have a bit of a warped impression since I was born and raised here, but I appreciate that we have a lot of cultural and culinary opportunities you usually have to travel to a bigger city for.
What do you like to do outside of work?
My husband and I travel as much as possible. London is my favorite place in the world, and I also love Barcelona, Taipei, Moorea, and Paris. We went to Malta for the first time this spring and it was gorgeous!
