Amy Frazier September 9, 2011 LI801 Foundations of Library and Information Science

This is a library, not a museum. Matthew Reynolds, the Public Services Librarian for the Verona Joyce Langford North Carolina Collection at East Carolina University in Greenville, NC, is in charge of one of the largest collections of North Carolinian archival materials in the state: rare books, maps, broadsides, art, government reports, county records, and around 10,000 rolls of microfilm that includes newspaper holdings dating back to the mid to late 18th century. He is a steward of his materials, seeing to their organization and preservation, but he stresses that preservation must go hand in hand with access. He believes that the value of a resource is degraded if it isnt used. Is an object of great value but fragile? Fine. Digitize it and put it up on the web. Doing this increases the value of the object in my opinion. No longer is the student tied to the research room with its cotton gloves and rules. Matt came to his position from an unconventional background. A college dropout, he spent time working as a line cook and sous chef before heading to the University of Kentucky to finish his BA in history. While doing research on the Cooper-Church Amendment of 1970, a document related to the Vietnam War, he had an opportunity to work with the original papers of John Sherman Cooper. [It was] my biggest aha! moment It was incredible to see the multiple drafts of the legislation with both Cooper and Churchs handwritten notes back and forth. The documents seemed very much alive

to me, with doodles and coffee cup rings. This insight into the value of original manuscripts inspired him to get his MLS from the University of Kentucky in 2005. Matts duties at the library are many and varied. Much of his day is occupied by management and organization: he begins by checking email and making sure that the circulation desk hours are covered for the day; he spends two to four hours per day manning the reference desk himself. He also spends a significant amount of time prepping for the many meetings his various professional activities require, as well as engaging in instruction of students, which he calls by far the most satisfying part of my job. He heads up the organization the librarys website, and engages in library-related research and writes book reviews. Matt is a strong believer in service though professional associations, and at present he is a member of the North Carolina Library Association, the American Library Association, the Association of College and Research Libraries, and is often a member of the Society of American Archivists. He cites the professional relationships he has formed through participation as a big reason why he stays involved. He has met associates from all over the country, with whom he gets together at conferences and events. Though we have a lot of fun, our conversations naturally gravitate toward work issues and we can talk about issues that we have in our home libraries, and how others may be meeting the challenges that these issues present. But he also notes that these organizations play an important role in the re-definition of the library in the digital world. The way in which information is stored, organized, and disseminated has fundamentally changed in the last twenty years and in order to remain of value, we must change as well Groups such as

ALA and ACRL are the ones that foster change on a large scale. We must approach change with a united front or we will surely lose the battle of value. I love what I do and I know that youll love it too. And enjoy learning a bazillion acronyms librarians seem to love them.