Meet the Allen Staff!

Starting next week, I won't be the only one writing blog posts. We now have five full-time staff members and we'll all be contributing on a regular basis. This being the case, I thought you might like to learn who we are. We'll start with our new Head...

Tracey Rudnick, Head
Tracey just started with us about three months ago. She was most recently the Music & Dramatic Arts Librarian (and music/drama library head) at the University of Connecticut. She was a percussionist, and did her undergrad at UC Davis and graduate degrees (Musicology, Library and Information Science) at UT Austin.

Jennifer Olson, Senior Cataloger
Jen has been here since June 2001, when she was a DMA Composition student at Hartt, taking a break from studies. She has since gone over to the dark side and is nearing completion of her Master of Science in Library Science degree at Simmons College, which she hopes to finish in May 2010. She occasionally emerges from the back room when the desk staff allow her to interact with patrons.

Jennifer Crum, Public Services Coordinator
Jenny started in her current position in January 2009, but also worked in the library as a graduate assistant from 2003-2006 while persuing her MM and GPD at Hartt. She also performs in the area as a freelance cellist and is an active private teacher.

Andrew King, Cataloging Coordinator
Andrew first worked at Allen in public services as the Access Services Coordinator from the fall of 2005 to the summer of 2007. After finishing his MM in Piano Performance he returned, this time working in the back room as a cataloger. A few weeks ago he was promoted to the full time
position of Cataloging Coordinator.

And as you've probably figured out by now if you've been reading this blog, I'm Sam Cook, Public Services Librarian. I started here in September 2007, but I was also a student employee at the circulation desk and in the back room from 2003-2004. Back then I was here at Hartt finishing up a BM in clarinet performance, and then I went to University at Albany, SUNY for a Master of Science in Information Science degree (fancy name for a library degree).

So that's our full-time staff. You'll be hearing from all of us in the upcoming weeks as we each provide our own perspective on what exciting things are going on in the Allen Library. I hope you enjoy the change and, as always, feel free to comment on anything we say!