Susan T. Ferrer-Vinent

Susan is the librarian at the Denver Art Museum’s Library.

1. How did you get to where you are now?

Susan was an audiologist, working on the evaluation and treatment of hearing loss.  She and her husband decided to make career changes and went into librarianship.  They both graduated from the University of Denver prior to accredation, but have since been able to get good jobs.  She has been at the DAM Library since 2005.

2. What do you do at the library?

Susan does almost everything at the library.  She has four volunteers who help out for several hours a week, but she does much of the cataloging work herself.

One ongoing project in the library is the barcoding of older books and the processing of acquisitions and donations that built up when the library didn’t have a librarian.

3. What are your collecting policies?

The DAM Library presents an interesting model, in which the curators decide what they need and order the materials.  Susan does not deal with collections at all, which frees up her time to work elsewhere in the library.

4. How do you decide what to keep?

Similarly, when she weeds the collections, she sends books or journals on to the curators, who make the ultimate decision of whether each item should stay or go.  Duplicates she pulls immediately and sends to the applicable curator to see if he or she would like a copy; many eventually end up on a freebie cart outside the library doors.

5. Are there any challenges or benefits you run into as a small institution that a larger one might not experience?

There’s a larger variety of work that she experiences than she might at a larger institution.  It is easier to wrap her head around the entire collection because of the smallness, another benefit.

The largest challenge is that she is alone in the library; she feels that she doesn’t quite have peers with whom she can discuss issues.

6. What kinds of information do patrons usually come seeking?

Curators and other researchers often come seeking specific information about a particular artist or piece of artwork.

7. What skills have you found vital that you learned outside of the classroom?

Organization, compartmentalization, basic computer skills, and a willingness to learn.

8.  What do you like most about your job? Least?

The variety is what she likes best about her job.  What she likes least is that she often feels unnoticed and unappreciated in her small repository.

We also discussed the organization for the library, which is divided up among four rooms on two floors: the main library, auction catalogs, serials, and storage.  Space is very much an issue for the DAM library; the administrative building isn’t getting any larger, but more space is needed.  Right now the library shares quite a bit of space with men and women from the education department.  There is talk of a new administrative building, which would likely solve the space issue but create a new obstacle in finding the best library design.

The books in the library are checked out using an honor system; patrons record their own borrowing record; Susan hasn’t noticed many problems with this system and it helps the curators who might need a book when she isn’t around.