ACRL News Issue (B) of College & Research Libraries


14 I  C&RL News ■ January 2003

Job of a Lifetime
D a n i a n n e  M i z z y

Adventure, mystery, romance, and LCSH!

If you like adventure, mystery, romance, and the su b tleties o f Library o f C ongress Sub­
ject H eadings for g enre fiction, th en  w orking 
at O h io ’s B o w ling G re e n  State U n iv e rsity ’s 
(BGSU) P o pular C ulture Library (PCL) m ight 
be your job o f a lifetime. The PCL, established 
at BGSU in 1969, is th e  largest facility d e d i­
c a te d  to  the a cq uisition a n d  p re se rv a tio n  of 
re s e a rc h  m aterials o n  post-1876 A m erican 
popular culture. Nancy D ow n has b e e n  p o p u ­
lar c u ltu re  catalo g e r a n d  re fe re n ce  librarian 
since 1996.

A natural 
progression
In  1 989, D o w n  
started out in main 
cataloging. “I had 
only w o rk e d  with 
the [Popular Cul­
ture] c o llectio n  a 
little  o n  s p e c ia l 
projects,” she said.
“My background is 
in English literature, 
but I was interested
in genre literature.
We had started d o ­
ing subject analysis 

 

of fiction w h e n  the OCLC/LC Fiction Project 
began adding subject and genre headings. I always 
enjoyed analyzing fictional literature and the genies, 
and translating that into subject headings,”

W h en  a n e w  PCL p o sitio n  w a s a d d e d  in 
1996, D ow n a pplied. T w o m o n th s later, she 
joined the four o th er p e rm a n en t staff o f PCL, 
w h ic h  o c c u p ie s  th e  fo u rth  flo o r o f  BGSU’s 
Jerom e Library.

T here w as a lot to  lea rn  in h e r n e w  p o si­
tion. “W hen I first started, it took m e a couple 
y ears to  feel really com fortable w ith the col­
lection. The challenge o f o u r collection is that 
it’s very wide ranging. We have all these differ­
ent categories: calendars and p in back buttons 
and greeting cards a nd p ost cards a nd mail or­
der catalogs, am ong m any others. B eyond the 
boo k s and m agazines, I had to sp e n d  a lot of 
tim e in th e  b a c k  g o in g  th ro u g h  all th e  little 
special collections."

A passion for 
providing access
For Down, cataloging 
and reference are two 
closely related facets 
of providing access to 
a closed stack collec­
tion. She is “really 
proud of the catalog­
ing access we provide. 
In a library like ours, 
w h e re  th ere  is no 
brow sing, the com ­
puter is your way into 
the collection. The 
more access points you 
have, the easier it is 

for patrons to find w hat they’re looking for.” 
One o f the things D ow n finds most rew ard­

ing a b o u t h e r job is “w h e n  y o u  can  co n n ec t 
patrons w ith w hat th e y ’re looking for. I have 
h a d  p e o p le  say, 'It’s really g reat that yo u  do 
subject analysis because I was looking for mys­
teries that have this particular feature to them, 
a n d  I can  find th em  u sin g  the su b je ct h e a d ­
ings.”’

Danianne M izzy is public services librarian a tth e  University o f  Pittsburgh's Hillman Library. Have an idea fora "Job of a 
Lifetime" story? E-mail: danianne+@pitt.edu

The Jerom e Rollers, a new ly form ed 
lib r a r v  d r i l l  t e a m . D e r f o r m in a  in t h e
B o w lin g G reen State U niversity (BGSU) H oliday 
Parade. Inset: Nancy Down, BGSU popular culture 
ca ta lo g e r and reference lib rarian .



C&RL News ■ January 2003 IT  5

Reference is challenging with such a diverse 
collection and a diverse set o f users. The col­
lection supports the work o f undergraduate, 
graduate, and doctoral students as well as fac­
ulty in popular culture and American culture 
studies. In addition, Down pointed out, “We 
get a lot o f calls from people who have been 
referred to us by other libraries, international vis­
iting scholars, calls from people who are doing TV 
programs, and a number of calls from journalists 
who are writing articles. Their deadline is usually 
‘today at five.’ We do get some agencies, like ad­
vertising agencies, requesting images, and it’s a 
challenge to find ones 
that are not in co p y ­
right to give to them.

“A lot o f our re­
q u e s ts  in v o lv e  r e ­
search,” she continued.
“You have to work with 
people more because 
they can’t just go to the 
shelves and get their 
materials. You often get 
to help them in ways 
that they would never 
come and ask you at a traditional reference desk, 
maybe help them in ways that they didn’t even 
know were possible.”

N ancy D rew  has n othing  on Nancy 
Down
After talking to Down, you realize that providing 
reference for popular culture questions is every 
bit as demanding as any other subject specialty, 
and was even more so for her in the beginning. “I 
don't think I ever read very much popular litera­
ture,” she confided. “When I started working at 
the PCL, I began reading mysteries. I probably 
shouldn’t say this, but I don’t really watch televi­
sion or go to a lot of movies, so it really challenges 
my reference skills sometimes to ask the right ques­
tions to figure out what people are talking about. ”

Over the years, many of the questions Down 
has received required real detective work. “A lot 
of people think any question that they feel is popu­
lar culture we must have something on,” she stated. 
“Why bams were painted red, the history of the 
cream pie in America, the history of parades- it 
can go all over the board.

“The one I recall the best was a woman who 
remembered her grandfather reading her an article 
from a detective magazine. She knew the maga­
zine title, but she couldn’t remember what year,

though sh e thought it was w ithin a certain 
range. She could remember what one picture 
looked like but she didn't know  the author, 
title, or anything.” After looking through sev­
eral years of the magazine, she actually found 
it, to the delight o f both the wom an and the 
Wyoming public librarian who had referred the 
question.

A m a zo n  a s s e le c tio n  aid
Two years ago Down assumed responsibility for 
selecting new books. “There used to be an ap­
proval plan but it wasn’t working, so I had to start 

f
Popular culture cataloger 
and reference librarian

W here:
Popular Culture Library 
Bowling Green State University 
Bowling Green, Ohio p

F o r  m o r e  in fo rm a tio n , visit:
http://www.bgsu.edu/colleges/library/
pcl/pcl.html l

rom scratch,” she ex­
plained. “The type o f 
books that we collect are 
somewhere in between 
being primary sources 
and secondary. Books 
on TV shows like the So- 

r a n o s  Friendsare not 
scholarly critical analy­
ses. They’re not the type 
o f things you get cata­
ogs or choice cards 

for like you do in tra­
ditional collection development.

“When I went to library school, I would never 
have imagined that I would be using Amazon.com 
as my chief development tool. I haven’t discov­
ered any other way to find these types of materi­
als, and it gives you an idea of what is popular 
with people and what people are reading.

“They’re also challenging because they go out 
of print fast. You usuaËy have to order them right 
away. Some of them never even get printed, they’re 
just anticipated. I feel very happy that I inherited 
the collection development. When I see people 
using the things I’ve ordered, I feel like I must be 
heading in the right direction.”

PCL on parade
O n N ovem ber 30, 2002, Dow n, along with 
seven other BGSU librarians, took their com­
munity outreach program to the streets, liter­
ally. T he Jero m e Rollers, a newly form ed li­
brary drill team, perform ed in the Bow ling 
Green Holiday Parade. The Rollers drilled with 
bo ok  carts decorated as reindeers, each deer 
representing a different genre. T he music li­
brary settled on Elvis while PCL w ent with a 
Western entry , dubbed “John Waynedeer.” 

Never let it be said that academic librarian- 
ship is all work and no play! ■

http://www.bgsu.edu/colleges/library/