EDUCATION

LIBRARY WORK EXPERIENCE

• Teaching LIBS100, which covers various issues in information literacy (library resources, web research, report writing, etc.)

• Reference & Instruction Services
  • Participate in duties of the Reference Desk, which include assisting in all subject areas.
  • Participate in virtual chat reference (LivePerson).
  • Phone, email, and by-appointment reference assistance in engineering, mathematics, statistics, and patent searching.
  • Conduct individual instruction in library resources, patent searching, web searching, and computer applications.
  • Conduct instructional sessions for incoming freshman.
  • Design and conduct instructional sessions tailored to specific classes or research areas.
  • Designed and teach a workshop on using RSS feeds.
  • Designed and teach a workshop on searching for patents.Assist with and provide instruction for various special user groups, such as a summer program for high school students.
  • Initiated instant messaging as a reference tool
• Collection Development
  • Responsible for selection of monographs, serials, and electronic databases in engineering, mathematics, and statistics.
  • Maintain research guides for engineering, mathematics, and statistics.
  • Conducted a 6-year citation analysis (2000-06) of engineering faculty publications to assist in collection decisions.
  • Spring 2006, hosted and worked with a practicum student on a citation analysis of engineering dissertations and thesis in chemical engineering and macromolecular science.
• College-Based Librarian in the Case School of Engineering (CSE)
  • Maintain a small reading room in CSE.
  • Provide remote reference services 15-20 per week from CSE.
  • Participate in CSE meetings, committees, and other activities as needed.

• Participation in University Activities
  • Committee member (2002) and Chair (2003) for the Friends of the University Libraries Outstanding Student Employee Award Committee.
  • 2003 University Libraries Holiday Party Committee. Solicitation of door prizes from local businesses.
  • Regular columnist in the University Libraries employee publication, including a column presenting and reviewing new computer programs or websites.
  • University Libraries Marketing PowerPoint Team.
  • Staff Employee Advisory Committee (2004-05) to the University President.
• Serials, Collection Management, and Document Delivery
  • Purchased articles, standards, patents, and professional translations.
  • Convinced company to invest in translation software to conduct translations internally to save money.
  • Management and procurement of resources, and the maintenance of the Lotus Notes library catalog.
  • Management of table of contents alerting service, including creation of self-service mechanisms for patrons to locate electronic resources.
  • Simplification of Copyright Clearance Center reporting.
  • Promoted new resources through activities, web pages, and demonstrations.
• Answering Reference Questions and Conducting Research
  • Conducted reference interviews and information research in polymers, engineering, chemistry, and business-support (human resources, competitive intelligence, and market information).
  • Participation and interaction with corporate engineering personnel, such as meeting attendance, safety teams, or other committees.
• Training
  • Conducted workshops and created reference materials on creating Adobe PDF documents.
  • Provided trainings in web page design for the creators of internal web content.
  • Provided instruction in searching techniques and utilization of information resources.
• Information Management
  • Assisted with lab notebook maintenance and storage.
  • Responsible for entry and maintenance of internal technical reports in electronic database, and maintenance of an archive of employee external publications.
  • Reinforcement of company information policies and sponsorship of the value of information to business operations.

• Worked the evening and weekend shifts when no supervisors were present
• Answered reference questions and assisted in various searches, utilizing the print collection, SciFinder Scholar, Beilstein, Cinahl, and Medline.
• Managed special projects, such as the shifting of materials, shipping materials to storage facilities, updating of item records, and the collection of material use statistics.
  • Performed independently as the binding manager for one year. Transformed procedure from a "paper" based procedure to a computerized process.

ENGINEERING & OTHER WORK EXPERIENCE

• Supported the Research and Development Department through quality control inspections, testing of parts, writing test and assembly procedures, troubleshooting, and raw material selection.
• Coordinated research efforts between outside companies, engineers, purchasing, and warehouse personnel; performed several key steps between design and manufacturing.

• Trained and supervised new employees. Created promotional materials.

TECHNICAL SKILLS

• Computer Applications and the Internet
  • Desktop: WordPro, Lotus 1-2-3, and Microsoft Office.
  • Web: Various web browsers, various search engines, Adobe Acrobat, Dreamweaver, and FrontPage.
  • Additional: Systran Premium (translation software) and BASIS (records management).
  • Maintain and author a weblog of engineering resources: http://blog.case.edu/bcg8/ and various other subject-specific research guides.
  • Designed two weblogs for library news and reference services
• Information Research
  • Research databases: STN, Dialog, Factiva, Delphion, Knovel, Lexis Nexis, Micropatent, and Nerac.
  • Patent research and related resources.
  • Library catalogs and academic databases: University of Akron, Kent State University, Case Western Reserve University, and OhioLINK resources.

AWARDS & HONORS

• Boy Scouts of America Eagle Scout.
• University of Akron Friends of the Library Professional Scholarship Recipient (2002-04).
• Special Libraries Association Scholarship Recipient (2003).
• Travel grants for ASIS&T Annual Meeting (2002-03) and SLA Annual Meeting (2003-04).
• Kent State University Rose Vormelker Student Award for Special Librarianship (2004).
• Kent State University August Alpers Library Award for contribution to library school (2005).

PROFESSIONAL INVOLVEMENT

• American Chemical Society (ACS), Chemical Information Division (2002-04)
• American Society of Information Science & Technology (ASIS&T) (2002-04)
  • Attended Annual Meeting (2002, 2003)
  • Student Volunteer at 2003 Annual Meeting
• Special Libraries Association, SLA (2002 - present)
  • Attended Annual Conference (2003, 2004)
  • Kent State Student Chapter (2002-04) – Various leadership roles
  • Student & Academic Relations Committee, Student Representative (2003-05)
• American Library Association (ALA) (2003 - present)
  • Attended Annual Conference (2004-06)Attended Midwinter Meeting (2004-05, 2007)
  • Library Administration & Management Association (LAMA) (2003 – present)
    • Leaders of the Pack (3-year mentoring/leadership program, 2004-06)
    • Public Relations & Marketing, Education & Training Committee (2004-06)
    • Dialog with Directors Discussion Group – Founder & moderator (2005 - present)
    • e-LA&M Task Force (2006-07)
    • LAMA Web Coordinator (2006-08)
  • Participant in ALA Library 2.0 - Pilot program exploring instruction and utilization of web tools in libraries (May-June 2006)
  • NMRT Liaison to LAMA (2006-07)
• Academic Library Association of Ohio (ALAO) (2002 - present)
  • 2007/08 Conference Planning Committee
• Kent State University School of Library & Information Science Core Constituency Advisory Team (CCAT) for Academic Libraries (2005 - present)

OTHER PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

• Participant in the first annual 2002 Ohio Support Staff Institute (OSSI). Liaison to Northeast Ohio to promote the 2003 Institute to future participants.
• Cleveland SLA Workshops
  • Mary Ellen Bates: Art of the Reference Interview (2002)
  • Jose-Marie Griffiths: Leadership Skills for the Electronic Age (2002)
  • Storytelling in Business Communication (2003)
  • Bill Fisher: ROI Calculations in Libraries (2004)
  • Steve Abram: Discovering a Bright Future for Libraries & Millennials! They're here. Deal with it! (2005)
• Participant in Library Leadership Ohio (August 2004).
• Participated in the World Usability Day events conducted by the Northeast Ohio Chapter of the Usability Professionals Association (November 2006).

PRESENTATION & PUBLICATIONS

• Academic Library Association of Ohio (ALAO) Annual Meeting, Panel Discussion: You Do What at the Library? Positioning Ourselves to Look at Alternative Employment Opportunities (2004)
• ALA Orlando 2004 - A Leadership Perspective, ALA NMRT Footnotes 34(1), August 2004. (Published online at http://www.louisville.edu/~tlholt02/nmrt/Footnotes/august2004/firstGray.htm).
• Self-awareness: The key to leading others. www.liscareer.com (2004 October). (Published online at http://www.liscareer.com/gray_self.htm).
• Quoted in In Our Own Words, Library Journal (November 15, 2004) by Rachel Singer Gordon. (Published online at http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA479186.html).
• Library Administration and Management Association, ALA NMRT Footnotes 34(3), February 2005. (Published online at http://louisville.edu/~tlholt02/nmrt/Footnotes/february2005/lama.htm).
• Quoted in Finding a Library Job, Library Journal (June 1, 2005) by Rachel Singer Gordon. (Published online at http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA6250888.html).
• Interviewed for Beyond the Prototype, ALA TechSource (May 28, 2006) by Teresa Koltsenburg. (Published online at http://www.techsource.ala.org/blog/2006/05/beyond-the-prototype.html).
• Guest Panelist – Special Libraries class, Kent State University, School of Library & Information Science (2006)
• Northern Ohio Chapter of the American Society for Information Science and Technology (NORASIST) Annual Meeting, Speaker: Exploring Libraries (...and our Users) in the Web 2.0 Realm (October 2006). (Published online at http://blog.case.edu/bcg8/2006/10/25/exploring_libraries_and_our_users_in_the_web_20_realm).
• 2006 ALAO Annual Meeting Poster Presentation - Grocery List on a Budget: Collection Analysis of Engineering Journal Titles (Handout published online at http://www.alaodev.org/conferences/postersessions/2006/GroceryListOnABudget-handout.pdf).
• Interviewed and profiled in The Nextgen Librarian's Survival Guide by Rachel Singer Gordon (2006).
• Blogs: http://briangray.alablog.org/ (Library 2.0) and http://blog.case.edu/bcg8/ (engineering)