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Can You Hear Us Now...?

Lynn Brown

I keep telling myself it’s just a little over two months, but somehow that doesn’t really reflect the degree to which I’ve been immersed in the “business” of communications. Yes, Virginia, there really is a communications unit in CUL, and I’m living proof that retired business librarians can be re-invented and can re-enter the work world. 

Serving as the Communications’ interim director has been an exciting challenge. As I write this, I’m still all aglow coming off the Library’s successful hosting of the Gail and Stephen Rudin Lecture on American Culture and lecturer Marilynne Robinson’s inspiring talk. What a thrill it was to meet a Pulitzer Prize-winning author and to see the Rudin collection of autographed letters from famous American and British writers. So these are the perks associated with my new, temporary work life!

However, there is also the day-to-day reality of running a communications program in CUL. Exactly who are we, and what do we do? We’re not a phantom unit—we’ve just been incommunicado of late. Because we haven’t really been “out there,” so to speak, this little piece is an attempt to shed some light on our current status, discuss briefly our future plans, and simply “communicate” with our community.

Structurally speaking, we are very much a work in progress, but we are “working.”  The unit, which is less than two years old, is still in its infancy, and, as with all new programs, it takes time to clarify roles and responsibilities and to determine how best to staff the unit. Other than the director, for which we’ll be posting a job announcement soon, all staff represent various degrees of part-time commitment, including some who are on temporary loan from their home departments. The greatest and most pleasant of surprises to me, as interim director, has been to observe the grace with which people wear multiple hats to accommodate work in their home unit and also in Communications. It is a real testament to their professionalism and skill. In alphabetical order we have Lynn Bertoia, whose primary work home is Library Administration; Jenn Colt-Demaree, whose primary work home is IRIS; Marty Crowe, who splits her time with Collection Development; Carla DeMello, who splits her time with IRIS; and CJ Lance, whose primary home is the Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections. Each person brings a special set of talents that enables Library Communications to function effectively.

Beth Fontana has long been associated with library publications and outreach communiqués. Her writing skills are well known in our library community and across campus. As the University moves ahead with the new capital campaign, Beth will refocus her talents on sharing the library’s “story” with our donor base. To that end she is now working directly with Marisue Taube, the director of Library Alumni Affairs and Development, but will continue to serve as a liaison to Communications. With Beth’s move back to Library Development, Library Communications will soon be posting a writer/editor’s position.

What do we do? Lots! Just as the staffing structure is a work in progress, to some extent so is what we do.  Core to our mission is to effectively showcase the Library to the University, to our professional colleagues, to our region, and, should the opportunity present itself, beyond. This sounds a bit like Buzz Lightyear’s “to infinity and beyond” motto (Toy Story I, II, etc.), but it is a worthy enterprise. It is also purposely vague, as showcasing the Library can be accomplished in a variety of ways, be it through obvious means such as reports, events, seminars, and lectures, or through venues and opportunities that have yet to be tried in our library.

Future goals include promoting our activities and services within CUL. Ultimately we hope to establish a client-based model that welcomes your use of our services. We are creating a Web site that will make contacting us easy. It will serve as a home base for providing resources such as CUL-approved PowerPoint templates, a place to find information on logo compliance, and a one-stop resource for telling your story via our guides for generating press releases and articles. We are a CUL-wide service operation, and we very much want to convey that sentiment via our Web presence.

In any good sales pitch there is also a hook, and here’s mine: effectively promoting the library will require partnering with one another. Perhaps it’s the business librarian in me that wants to be heard, but I honestly feel that to successfully promote CUL, and to effectively demonstrate that what we do, both individually and collectively, advances scholarship at Cornell, we must work together in partnership to accomplish the goal. 

I entitled this article “Can You Hear Us Now?” In closing I’d like to ask the library community, “May we hear from you now?” Your ideas and stories are welcomed. Library Communications may be contacted via e-mail at libcomm@cornell.edu.

Next: Lavoisier Collection Grows