NCSU Libraries Focus Online

Volume 22 number 1 - Fall 2001

The NCSU Libraries Fellows Program began its third year with the selection of an exceptional group of new librarians: Megan Oakleaf, Darby Orcutt, Plato Smith, K. T. Vaughan, and Katherine Wisser. The Libraries launched the Fellows program in 1999 to demonstrate its commitment to defining the future of librarianship by providing career-enhancing opportunities to a talented and select group of new M.L.S. graduates. Fellows work half time in a home department and half time on a special project in another department.

Megan Oakleaf, a former high school English and Spanish teacher in Ohio, is well suited for her home department and project. Based in Research and Information Services, she provides reference services and coordinates the instruction program for freshman composition. For her project, Oakleaf is conducting research on enterprise-wide strategic initiatives for the Libraries' senior administrators.

Oakleaf received an M.L.S. from Kent State University, where she was inducted into Beta Phi Mu. Her master's research paper describes the unique way scholars in the humanities approach today's electronic resources and information services in a university library setting. She earned two undergraduate degrees, one from the College of Arts and Sciences and the other from the College of Education at Miami University, where she was elected to Phi Beta Kappa.

Darby Orcutt's undergraduate work as an orientation leader and his graduate research on assessing attitudes of college-bound seniors have provided an excellent foundation for his project in Research and Information Services, where he is integrating a library assignment tutorial into the library's online orientation program. In his home department of Collection Management, Orcutt is the collection management Fellow for the humanities.

Orcutt earned a B.A. in speech communications and religious studies from UNC-Chapel Hill, where he was a James M. Johnston Scholar and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. He earned an M.A. in communication studies and an M.S.L.S. from UNC-Chapel Hill.

The experiences Plato Smith II acquired during several prestigious internships, most recently as Web development intern at Duke University’s Perkins Library, have prepared him for his departmental assignment in Systems and his project in Research and Information Services. For his project, he works with the head of Data Services to develop tools for the discovery, extraction, and analysis of numeric data.

Smith received a B.S. in marketing from North Carolina A&T University. He earned a B.A. in computer information systems and an M.I.S. from North Carolina Central University in May 2001. Two years ago, Smith studied at the University of Ghana at Legon, where he completed an independent study directed by the head of Library and Archival Studies.

K. T. Vaughan is working with collection managers on a project to assess collections and develop user-focused policies. Using benchmarks established by the Association of Research Libraries, she is giving special consideration to NC State's academic strengths. Her home department is the Scholarly Communication Center, where she is developing an undergraduate education program of copyright and plagiarism workshops and tutorials.

Vaughan worked in several science libraries while earning a B.A. in biology from Harvard University. A graduate of UNC-Chapel Hill's School of Information and Library Science, where she earned an M.S.L.S., Vaughan worked as an intern at the Environmental Protection Agency Library and as a senior library assistant at Duke University's Gross Chemistry Library. In May 2001 Vaughan's "Webliography" on chemical research ethics was published in the online journal Issues in Science and Technology Librarianship, a publication of the Association of College and Research Libraries.

Katherine Wisser, a former library assistant in Special Collections who led the Encoded Archival Description (EAD) Summer Project, is again working in Special Collections on a special project to increase access to its holdings by implementing EAD applications. Wisser's home department is Cataloging, where she provides support for subject analysis and contributes to the establishment of policies and procedures for manuscripts and archives cataloging.

Wisser earned an M.S.L.S. from UNC-Chapel Hill, where she was inducted into Beta Phi Mu. She received a B.A. and an M.A. in history from Bates College and the University of New Hampshire, respectively. This year, she was elected member-at-large to the Executive Board of the Society of North Carolina Archivists.