Chapter 08: Developing Areas of Staff Expertise in the Library

Chapter 08: Developing Areas of Staff Expertise in the Library

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Description

Ms. Hoffman begins by explaining that she strengthened RML services by recruiting individuals to perform high level online searches. Next, she discusses the creation of the Historical Resources Center, an action that was associated with the Library’s acquisition of the papers from the Office of the President. This acquisition brought awareness to the need for a formal mechanism to preserve the institution’s history. (Ms. Hoffman notes that her interactions with Beth White at the TMC Library underscored the importance of such archives). She explains that a task force was created to address the issue of preserving MD Anderson history, also resulting in the creation of the oral history project.

Identifier

HoffmanKJ_01_20180319_C08

Publication Date

3-19-2018

City

Houston, Texas

Topics Covered

The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center - Building the Institution; Overview; Leadership; On Leadership; Overview; Career and Accomplishments; Professional Practice; The Professional at Work; Building/Transforming the Institution; The Value of the Oral History Project

Transcript

Tacey A. Rosolowski, PhD:

But I don’t want to jump the gun, because there’s a lot of history in developing the library before that happens. So you were starting to talk about the physical space; what are some of the other things that began to set in place, kind of the moments of developing the library?

Kathryn Jones Hoffman, MSLS:

It was the expertise of the new staff we were hiring, what they—what their skills were. We really needed staff that could do high-level online searching for researchers. Stephanie Fulton was one of those individuals that I recruited. Greg Pratt. Is Greg still here?

Tacey A. Rosolowski, PhD:

He is.

Kathryn Jones Hoffman, MSLS:

Yeah. He and I worked together at the TMC Library. Yeah. A lot of us kind of hang around together for a long time. Anyway, so it was hiring people to do—that had skills in certain areas, and being able to do the kind of high-level searches for people was really critical.

Tacey A. Rosolowski, PhD:

To support the research initiatives, yeah, yeah.

Kathryn Jones Hoffman, MSLS:

Right, right. So I’ve lost track of the question now.

Tacey A. Rosolowski, PhD:

Oh, you were talking about really the areas of expertise of the staff you were hiring was key. So the high-level searching. And what were some other recruits that you made?

Kathryn Jones Hoffman, MSLS:

Well, a big one was we established the Historical Resources Center, and we hired an archivist. And we got a grant, a very large grant, to process the records of the Office of the President. Huge collection. Most of it was on microfilm, and so we were able to hire another archivist, a second archivist on the grant, and, I think, another individual that worked on the grant, to get—to process all those records.

Tacey A. Rosolowski, PhD:

Now, why was the decision made to establish the Historical Resources Center?

Kathryn Jones Hoffman, MSLS:

That was something we did when we were still in the old space. One of the first things when I came as director, we had a very small but respectable—I don’t know if you’d call it a rare book room, but a history of medicine collection, some of the items rare. But they weren’t being housed properly. They weren’t in a climate-controlled environment. They weren’t packaged in acid-free folders and things like that. They were just—they used to be part of Marie Harvin’s office. She at least had the foresight to build this collection, but there was more we knew we wanted to add to it. We wanted to add—we were given the records of the President’s Office, but hadn’t—didn’t have the resources, personnel to process them, to—

Tacey A. Rosolowski, PhD:

Now, was this just after Charles LeMaistre [oral history interview] left? Because he would’ve left—John Mendelsohn [oral history interview] came on in ’96.

Kathryn Jones Hoffman, MSLS:

Yeah, it was about that time. About that time. So we formally established it as—and gave it a name. And then we renovated another little chunk of space to put in special climate control and compact shelving, so we could put a lot into a small space. With the grant, we got materials, acid-free materials, to package and house documents, and even the rare books. So a lot was done early on.

Tacey A. Rosolowski, PhD:

Can I ask you just... Did you feel—was there a similar kind of archivist or resource center, history-focused element of the collections at the TMC or at UT Southwestern?

Kathryn Jones Hoffman, MSLS:

There was at the TMC. The TMC—and that really was the work of one individual, Beth White. When I first went to that library in 1973, she was the other cataloguer. We were both cataloguers. And then she developed an interest in rare books, an interest in the history, and we had a rare book collection at that library, but it was not taken care of. We didn’t have anyone managing it. It just sort of was books in a room that nobody went into. And she took it on, and really became just a master rare book librarian. And she did a lot of work in meeting with individuals in the Medical Center to contribute their records to the archive. They established an archive. And she really singlehandedly built that. So it was a very rich, and is to this day, archive. And I guess I learned a lot from my association with her, and watching what she did. She just took something that was nothing and built it into something great. And having that history—my undergraduate degree was in history; (laughs) I guess it comes naturally—was so important. And so I saw that here, as well. We had the nugget, and we certainly had a history that needed to be recorded and saved.

Tacey A. Rosolowski, PhD:

Did you feel when you came that... Or I shouldn’t ask the question that way. How would you compare the culture of MD Anderson, and MD Anderson’s sense of its own culture, with respect to the culture at TMC, or the culture at UT Southwestern? Probably UT Southwestern, since that’s more an institution of the sort that’s comparable to MD Anderson. I mean, the whole culture piece and awareness of history, how do you compare those?

Kathryn Jones Hoffman, MSLS:

I don’t know. I never stopped to think about that. There were always a few individuals that understand the history, and the need to preserve the history, but by and large most people don’t think about it, I think. Now, Dr. Tomasovic [oral history interview] certainly realized the importance. And I don’t remember who was the one responsible to set it all in motion, but we wanted to write another history of MD Anderson, and so there was a task force formed. Dr. Tomasovic chaired it. Steve Stuyck [oral history interview] from Public Affairs was on it. I was on it. And we went about finding someone to write the history, which was an interesting process in itself. And at the same time we did that, that was kind of the same time we established the Historical Resources Center. And we knew—we laid out that we knew we wanted to document our history. We wanted to write the history; that was one. We wanted to document and preserve that historical record by creating an archive. And we wanted to create the oral history program. All of those were all part of that whole kind of master plan we laid out.

Tacey A. Rosolowski, PhD:

Hmm, interesting.

Kathryn Jones Hoffman, MSLS:

And actually, we wrote together, Dr. Tomasovic and Steve Stuyck and myself, we wrote a little piece that we gave to Dr. Mendelsohn to sell this idea.

Tacey A. Rosolowski, PhD:

Oh, interesting.

Kathryn Jones Hoffman, MSLS:

Yeah.

Tacey A. Rosolowski, PhD:

Do you still have that?

Kathryn Jones Hoffman, MSLS:

I’m going to look, before I come back to... Yeah, I’m going to look for that.

Tacey A. Rosolowski, PhD:

Or whenever, because—

Kathryn Jones Hoffman, MSLS:

We did.

Tacey A. Rosolowski, PhD:

—that’d be something we could attach to your interview and all of that.

Kathryn Jones Hoffman, MSLS:

It’s probably here in the Archive somewhere. (laughter)

Tacey A. Rosolowski, PhD:

It probably... That’s funny.

Kathryn Jones Hoffman, MSLS:

Because it was part of the Office of the President.

Tacey A. Rosolowski, PhD:

Well, we’re at five of 3:00. Do you want to stop for today, and then...? This is a good moment to kind of—good stopping place, and we can pick up next time.

Kathryn Jones Hoffman, MSLS:

All right.

Tacey A. Rosolowski, PhD:

That sounds great. Well, it’s—

Kathryn Jones Hoffman, MSLS:

It’s been fun.

Tacey A. Rosolowski, PhD:

It has been fun. It’s been a real pleasure, and... Yeah, well, I look forward to talking to you again next week.

Kathryn Jones Hoffman, MSLS:

Thank you.

Tacey A. Rosolowski, PhD:

And I know your—Stephanie’s going to take you [on a tour of the renovation].

Kathryn Jones Hoffman, MSLS:

Oh, I can’t wait to see.

Tacey A. Rosolowski, PhD:

Yeah, it’s really exciting. So I’m just saying for the record: I am turning off the record at five minutes of 3:00.

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Chapter 08: Developing Areas of Staff Expertise in the Library

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