NCSU Libraries Focus Online

New NCSU Libraries Personnel

Jefferson F. Essic

Jefferson F. Essic joined the NCSU Libraries as its data services librarian in the Research and Information Services Department on December 2, 2002. Essic leads the Libraries' innovative spatial and numeric data services program, including the development and expansion of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) services that provide software, training, and data resources for the NC State community. He provides instructional sessions and develops Web-based tutorials, data documentation, and research resources for students and faculty and trains library staff in the use of data resources. He also serves as the library's representative on the InterUniversity Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR). In this highly collaborative position, Essic will consult with faculty and students to analyze data needs and will work with the Triangle Research Libraries Network (TRLN) and digital library colleagues across the country and internationally.

Previously, Essic worked as an information technology analyst with the Triangle J Council of Governments (TJCOG). There he designed and executed the GIS components of regional-planning projects, including the Cape Fear and Upper Neuse Riparian Buffer Studies. He also performed data gathering and mapping for the Triangle Transit Authority light-rail corridor study. Before his work at TJCOG, Essic was a GIS technician with the NCSU Cooperative Extension Service, providing GIS support for research and educational purposes.

Essic received a master's degree in natural resources with a spatial information science technical option and a B.S. in conservation from NC State. He worked for four years (both as an undergraduate and graduate student) in the Natural Resources Library. He is a member of the NC Statewide Mapping Advisory Committee, the NC ArcInfo Users Group, and is active professionally.

Kimberly L. Duckett

Kimberly L. Duckett became the instruction librarian for Distance Learning Services on March 1, 2003. She leads and coordinates library instruction for students enrolled in distance education courses and works with faculty and subject specialist librarians to integrate library instruction and orientation into distance education courses and programs. Duckett is responsible for the design and delivery of general and discipline-specific instructional sessions for distance learners and of Web-based tutorials and research resources. Duckett provides reference assistance and instruction to distance education students using a variety of technologies and will occasionally travel to off-campus classrooms to provide instruction sessions. She collaborates with the university's Learning Technology Service staff to integrate research tools and resources into the online course environment.

Most recently, Duckett has been an NCSU Libraries Fellow, with an assignment in Distance Learning Services. She co-developed online instruction tools, including Help Wizards. Duckett also contributed to the redesign of LOBO (Library Online Basic Orientation) and the E-journal Finder tool on the library's Web site. Her project assignment focused on the Design Library's image database. She was responsible for cataloging and classifying materials, training staff, and enhancing the usability of the database.

Duckett holds an M.S.L.S. from UNC-Chapel Hill, where she received the Margaret Ellen Kalp Fellowship. As a graduate student, she completed graduate assistantships at the Couch Biology Library, the House Undergraduate Library, and the Davis Library. She graduated summa cum laude from the University of Tennessee (UTC) at Chattanooga with a B.A. in philosophy and religion and minors in art history and ancient Greek. There she received the Student Government Award in Philosophy and Religion. Her thesis won the North Callahan Award for Outstanding Undergraduate Honors Thesis, the most prestigious prize for undergraduate research at UTC.

Karrie Peterson

The NCSU Libraries appointed Karrie Peterson as head of its government information services in the Research and Information Services Department effective March 14, 2003. Peterson will guide the development and delivery of digital government information resources and coordinate access to printed state and federal government documents and to map collections within the Libraries. She will oversee all government information services, including specialized reference assistance and instruction, and will lead and administer the library's participation in the Federal Depository Library Program, the North Carolina State Documents Depository System, and the Patent and Trademark Depository Library Program. Peterson will have responsibility for developing state and federal document reference collections, a print map collection, and for selecting materials to support intellectual property research.

Peterson most recently worked as the federal government information librarian at the University of California, San Diego. There she managed the Federal Depository Collection, developed a pilot "capture and preserve" project for fugitive documents, rewrote the federal documents collection development policy, initiated a data migration project, and completed a preservation analysis of the microfiche collection. She has also developed and taught a statistical literacy instruction session for undergraduates. Earlier, Peterson was a programmer analyst at the University of Pittsburgh Libraries. From 1982 to 1997, she worked as a library associate at the Seattle Public Library.

Peterson earned an M.L.S. from the University of Pittsburgh, with a concentration in government documents and reference, and a bachelor's of arts and science in philosophy magna cum laude, with a minor in writing, from the University of Pittsburgh. She is currently chair of the Education Committee of the Government Documents Round Table in the American Library Association (ALA) and a steering committee member of the Federal Documents Task Force, Government Documents Round Table in ALA. She has published extensively in professional publications.