News Library News Online
Vol. 22, No.1/Fall 1999

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Off the Shelf

Stephanie Willen BrownBy Stephanie Willen Brown

Editor’s Note: Stephanie kicks off her new column, Off the Shelf, in this issue. We thought it would be nice if she used herself as an example. We look forward to profiling all sorts of different people in the next editions. Please take part by volunteering or suggesting names of those who you would like to see profiled!

 

Name: Stephanie Willen Brown
Job Title: Library Director
Company: Springfield Newspapers (Mass.)
Circulation: 100,000 daily; 150,000 Sunday

Something unusual about your newspaper: We publish six different editions daily. Most of the Local section is different in each edition.

Title of person to whom you report: Executive Editor

Number working in library: 1 professional; 10 support staff

Education: Bachelor's degree from Mount Holyoke College; MLIS from Simmons College

Archive system: Merlin (text and photos; installed March, 1999)

Three most recent reference questions:

  • How long is the Massachusetts Turnpike?
  • When was the P-47 Thunderbolt (WWII fighter plane) put into service?
  • Where is the full text of the Gettysburg address?

Three favorite web sites:

  • My collection of "Library Links" created for the newsroom -
    http://www.javanet.com/~swbrown/
  • Carol Gerten's Fine Art - A Virtual Museum -
    http://metalab.unc.edu/cgfa/
  • International Lyrics Server (when it's working) --
    http://www.lyrics.ch/index.htm

Current favorite search engine -- and why:

HotBot's text only search -- http://www.hotbot.com/text/   As a text-only interface, it loads quickly. Plus, you can specify number of hits on the results page (10, 25, 50). And you can limit search by time, domain, and language.

Three favorite reference books: Business Phone Book USA, Massachusetts Municipal Profiles, Statistical Abstracts

Number of volumes in library: 500 on shelves

Cataloging system: Modified Dewey; books are shelved by category (Business, Literature, History, Science, etc.) Books are maintained in a FileMaker database.

Biggest professional accomplishment last year: I supervised library redesign - now it looks like a real library, with stacks and everything!

Biggest challenge ahead: Working with newsroom team to create an intranet.

Three personal items that are on your office desk: Pictures of my husband and cat; hand lotion (newspapers are so drying!); crystal bear my dad gave me.

Stephanie Willen Brown is the Library Director at the Springfield Union-News. Her email is swbrown@javanet.com.   Stephanie also maintains the Newspaper Archives on the Web site on the News Division web site.  http://metalab.unc.edu/slanews/internet/archives.html

 


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