Name: Jean Gudenas
Title: Head of Collections Management
Email: jgudenas@luc.edu
Organization: Loyola University of Chicago Health Sciences Library
Website (Personal or Professional): http://library.luhs.org/hslibrary/index.htm

Born and Lived: I was born in LaGrange, Illinois, moved to Aurora in my early teens, and now living in another Chicago Suburb.

Professional Career and Activities: I started at Loyola’s Health Sciences Library nearly seven years ago as a reference and outreach librarian and four years later became the Head of Collections.  In collaboration with my director, I have dedicated myself to revitalizing our collection to meet the needs of our users.

With my position, I believe that most anything can be a resource and part of my job is learning how to best utilize that resource; whether it is knowing the tools to best help faculty or investigating new trends that will aid our students. So, I enjoy interacting with faculty and students through staffing our service desk and by assisting with their research needs. I also have fun doing instruction and have recently developed a productivity apps class for mobile devices.

In terms of professional activities, I have been published in several different publications, have contributed columns for MLANews (the Medical Librarian’s Association monthly publication), and am the Technology Editor for MLANews.

Family: I have been married for 7 years to a wonderful man and we have an amazing 2 year old girl who has my smirk and our shared sense of humor

In My Spare Time: My spare time is mostly spent with my daughter, although my husband and I do try to get out on occasion.

Favorite Books: To name one favorite book would be impossible, as I will read anything. I love all different books, ranging from Murakmi’s 1Q84 to Roald Doahl’s A Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar and Six More to Philip K Dick’s Ubik

Pet Peeves: When Microsoft Excel decides to freeze because I have too many spreadsheets opened

Philosophy: “Life does not cease to be funny when someone dies any more than it ceases to be serious when someone laughs”

-George Bernard Shaw

Most Memorable Career Achievement: Spending over 200 hours doing a detailed collections assessment that is serving as a benchmark for collection development and acquisitions for the next five years. Doing this has allowed me to gain a greater understanding of the research and educational needs of our faculty and students while also exploring a range of possibilities with developing the collection to meet their needs.

Goal I Hope to Achieve Five Years from Now: Actually obtain the resources I’ve proposed in my collections assessment

How/Where Do I See the Industry in Five Years: The continuing progression of electronic textbooks as interactive learning resources, especially on mobile devices. What I hope to see are for these resources to be available as institutional subscriptions and not individual subscriptions, which is the current model with providers like VitalSource and Inkling.