AMY HANDFIELD, ACCESS SERVICES LIBRARIAN
Being an access services librarian involves wearing many different hats, an expression Amy Handfield uses quite a bit to describe her position at the College, which isn’t as straightforward as supposed. As one might expect, Handfield has her librarian duties, such as teaching information literacy courses, working at the reference desk and maintaining the library’s catalog database. She’s in charge of the circulating collection, too, which includes all the books getting checked in and out, as well as the media collection and course reserves. But Handfield also oversees the maintenance of the facility, so to speak. For a building that is often open 24/7, it needs to be kept running for the students and faculty. While wearing her facilities hat, she oversees the scheduling and maintenance of all the rooms — study, events, teleconference and media rooms — in the library that can be reserved or rented. Handfield is also the person that patrons will call when a bird is spotted flying around the fourth floor or, say, when a mystery student builds an architectural structure out of the chairs during finals week. In addition, Handfield has a scholarly hat for when she teaches technology workshops in the library. The workshops, called Tech Talks, are
part of a new pilot started last year, which she helped to initiate, and offer library-centric technology instruction at lunchtime. She also teaches students how to use a particular database, or suggests resources for a research project, for the many courses at the College that have a library component in their syllabi. While she has quite a collection of hats, the one thing that connects them all is the people part of her job. Whether it’s helping someone on staff with a circulation task or seeking out the perfect resources for a student’s bibliography, she likes the personal interaction. “I enjoy dealing with my staff and dealing with the people that I come across in going about my day, but also I absolutely love being in front of a classroom,” she says. Although she’s been part of the Manhattan community for a little more than a year, she’s been working in libraries since her college days. Handfield caught the book bug during her work-study years, moving from the libraries of Skidmore to Barnard, and earning a master’s in library science along the way. She’s also a visual artist with an M.F.A. who dabbles in bookmaking — perhaps another hat for the shelf. MANHATTAN.EDU N 27