Ardeen White is an expert in creating order out of chaos. Well-known and respected as a colleague in Room 110 of Olin, Ardeen's extensive knowledge of cataloging practices and her skills as a trainer have also earned her well-deserved recognition across CUL. But for those who might not have the pleasure of working with or knowing Ardeen, we at Backstory are happy to highlight her talents and accomplishments once again for this issue's Staff Profile.

Ardeen began her CUL career in 1990 at the Experiment Station Library in Geneva. Since 1991, she has been a member of the CTS team and a copy cataloger since 1993. In a relatively short period of time, Ardeen has become the senior copy cataloger and has helped train several of her current colleagues in copy cataloging procedures. She’s also worked diligently in testing new software and in training and writing procedures for new workflows like classification on receipt. Ardeen’s patience, skill and hard work served CTS admirably during the first backlog project in the pre-Voyager days, during which she helped train over 30 students; she’s since trained another 20 or so students to perform fast cataloging. The high quality and output of their work can be in part traced back to her thorough careful training and sharp-eyed review.

Two different columns in Kaleidoscope, the CUL staff newsletter, gained Ardeen a small measure of fame beyond the walls of Room 110. The first, which she wrote during her tenure as a member of the CTS RMI Team, was called (appropriately enough) From the RMI Team. Her second column was Divine Order, another aptly-titled feature in which she shared a few secrets of her own exceptional organizational skills. She also earned laurels for her work as a recipient of the CUL Staff Recognition Award in 1999. Her selection for that prestigious award was a source of pride and pleasure for everyone in CTS. Many CUL tech services staff got to see Ardeen in action when she served as one of the Voyager trainers in 2000. Knowingly or not, they still rely on her work, since much of the content from the original training scripts created for that undertaking evolved into today’s CUL Voyager Manual, which is used not only by CUL TS staff, but also by many of our peer institutions in their own Voyager migrations.

Ardeen’s keen eye and sense of order are put to excellent use in projects outside of the library as well. A few years ago, she purchased a house on West Hill. An avid gardener for many years, she was a longtime and very active member of Ithaca Community Gardens; now she is thrilled to coax beauty from the soggy Ithaca soil on her very own piece of treasured real estate. Ardeen's eyes light up when she talks about projects she undertakes around the house. She is also interested in many fiber arts, and has made clever dolls, clothing, dried flower arrangements, and wreaths, to name just a few. Fortunately for her colleagues, she shares her extracurricular interests at work, too. She has contributed her work to the annual staff art show, and our work place has been enhanced by her careful selection of the department greenery.