So, if we could start out, can you pronounce
your last name for me, because I have never known.
Good to know. Thank you.
So, Jeff, how did you begin your career at UNT Libraries?
Oh my gosh, I started at the libraries in 2010.
I actually started as the help desk manager at
that time.
I had just moved into town from Arizona, and I
got out of the military,
and I just finished up at the University of
Arizona there.
So I started off here, and slowly, after a few
years, I started moving through the positions.
They found things that they thought I was
better at, so they wanted to capitalize on the
skill set.
Mm-Hmm. What, for most people, most librarians,
I'm asking them about pursuing their career in
librarianship, but what interested you in the
career that you developed at the libraries?
I was, before I was here, I was working some
time over at the University of Arizona, so I was
already comfortable with the world of academia.
I wasn't necessarily looking for a position
in the libraries, but they happened to be the
first department, and this is the first
university, and they called me back.
So I interviewed, and I took them up on their
offer, and I ended up here at UNT.
But while I was here, since I was going to be
at the libraries, I still wanted to make
sure I understood how everything worked in the library.
I know it's part of the university, but there
are some nuances, so I wanted to make sure
I got to know everybody in the library, get to
know their processes, and after that, it
got to the point where I wasn't just interested
in the technology, but I was also interested
in making improvements, maybe in the world of technology.
So, it kind of moved into project management,
process improvement, and then eventually into
data analytics.
Mm-hmm. So tell me a little bit about how the
technology changed just in the time that you
were here at UNT.
Oh, wow. The technology. When I first got here,
there were several things that the university
took care of on their own.
We didn't really have the same contract with
Dell that we do now, so we actually had a unit
on campus that serviced the computers that we
had, so we had to have things built.
It was challenging to manage because there
wasn't just a place where we can say, hey,
there's an issue with this, so it wasn't really
a single point of contact for the parts.
So that in itself has evolved, but we've also
seen technology evolve as the students' needs changed.
One thing we always talked about is how
students, we never really have the same
students after four years.
They cycle in or out, and at that time their
needs change as well.
So we've seen as, I mean, the best analogy I
could put is when people ask me about how
technology changes
and how quickly do we see technology change,
it's hard for me to describe.
So instead what I ask them is, okay, let's take
a look at your cell phone.
would you be using that same cell phone that
you were using last year two years
ago no because it's it's made improvements in
in the same way
technology has improved in the world of
academia and research well personally I
wish I had my blackberry back what are some of
the most memorable experiences
you had working in the library oh wow how one
of the things was gosh I would
say if I take it back to the first big project
that I got to spearhead it was
when we had to do we had to take she's millions
of volumes and we needed to
move them into our remote storage the the RCL
at the Annex and that was
supposed to take about 18 months but we had a
pretty good group and we were able
able to get that done about six months ahead of
schedule so I was really I was
really proud of that man that was a big
undertaking one of the things
I was I was afraid of is that there was going
to be cost overruns and there was
going to be we were going to be out of time go
go over 18 month limit but we
were able to pull that off and after that I
think I've been able to build up
some trust and that's when I moved into a more
of a project management role and
and was able to take on bigger projects.
Do you remember how many volumes you moved?
I want to say it was, gosh, I want to say one
and a half million.
Oh, my goodness.
One and a half million.
And this was, a lot of these volumes,
we had to move back and forth between this
building and Sycamore.
So if anybody is familiar with that elevator
and those stairs at Sycamore,
that elevator is pretty terrifying.
The fact that we were able to get the movers to
go ahead and get some book trucks in there
and they were okay with it, I was pretty amazed
with that.
I'm just glad it wasn't me.
What parts of your job were the most personally
rewarding to you?
One of the things, gosh, I guess recently with
the library hitting ARL status,
And knowing that, I don't want to say that I
played a role myself, because everybody played
a role, but that I was responsible for
collecting some of the information that we were
able to turn in to justify the reasons that we
should be a part of that group.
So recently, I would say that's one of the big things.
Well, you were part of the committee that was
assigned to the ARL application.
I was, but honestly, even if I wasn't, I would
have found some way to volunteer for it if I could.
But other than that, the big thing that I'm
still proud of is our donut survey.
I'm glad that it's still going on.
So to me, it's one of those weird little things
that I look at as a legacy item.
I put something together, and groups in the
library and around campus found it useful, and
they're implementing it.
Well, take a minute and explain what the donut
survey is.
So for a long time, we've been collecting
information from staff and students about the libraries,
but our response rate was terrible.
And I get it.
And the surveys were, in a sense, biased
because they were presented to specific groups
in specific locations at specific times, and
they also did not capture anything about our non-users.
We had a good amount of information from the
library users,
but we never got to understand why users that
don't use the library don't.
What we did is we were looking for a method to
quickly capture information
that would also value the students' time.
It kind of started off as a joke.
I said, you know what? Students love donuts.
It doesn't matter who they are, where they're from.
They love donuts. Let's go ahead and let's do a survey.
We'll ask them a few questions.
We'll send them up in such a way so it only
takes 30 seconds,
so we'll give them a donut.
And we figure, okay, a donut, if they look at
that as a dollar for a donut
and it takes them 30 seconds, wow, you know,
that's a pretty good valuation for their time.
We did a pilot.
We tried it out, and we asked some questions about,
some general questions about library use.
And next thing you know, we were, it was pretty successful.
We, I think on day one, we decided we needed
about 270 responses to call this a success and
to get the response rate we needed.
And we said, let's just go ahead and buy 330
donuts, just in case.
And within two and a half hours, they were gone. Wow.
And we were able to get the responses we need.
We found this to be successful, so we tried it
again, different locations, and each time it
was the same thing.
Students would see this and realize that not
only was the survey anonymous, because we
didn't collect any of their information,
it only took 30 seconds, and we gave them a
donut, and they didn't even have to interact
with us.
We said, hi, take the survey, they get on a
laptop, and grab a donut and go.
So what are some of the most significant
findings from the donut surveys?
We were able to find out, if we look at things
like, let's look at the factory, or now the
Spark, since that's one that I've been working
with for a good amount of time.
We were trying to, in a sense it was still experimental.
We weren't sure what those students wanted or
what they needed, so we just did a quick
survey to see if they use a spark what they
want and what things they wanted to
use we can prioritize those and we were able to
implement some of those
decisions other than that we've also we've also
oh we've also created surveys
about the facilities in general to see what
they thought about some of the
improvements we've made some of the seating we
had and just the facilities
in general, and then some general library questions.
What do you think is unique about UNT
libraries, or what sets UNT libraries apart
from other
academic libraries?
I would say that I don't think I've ever seen a
library that was so committed to, and not
just their full-time staff, but to the students.
I don't think I've seen a library that
committed to the student employees and making
sure that
They were not just treated as some student
employee that was disposable, but, you know, in
a sense, they were, you know, if they would say
that the full-timers were family, then they
would treat those students as family as well.
Everybody was considered a part of the library,
not just temporary, but for your entire
academic career.
That's neat.
Excuse me.
How, well, and you sort of talked a little bit
about this, how your role changed at UNT over time.
So you left UNT in 2022 or 23, 23.
What were, what were your job responsibilities
at that point when you left UNT?
It was a pretty multifaceted position.
One of the big things was the technology integration.
I needed to make sure that different types of
systems were able to interact together,
and that wasn't just the different types of
technology, but that also meant integrating it
with the facilities as well.
So all of these things were, when you look at
it from an outside perspective, they're not
necessarily related.
I had to make sure that those integrations were
seamless so that when a user came in,
they would look at it and say, well, you didn't
just build a building and then put technology
in it.
You built a resource, which happened to be a
building with technology.
So that was one of the key aspects, managing
the facilities and the projects.
The projects was the big thing, making sure
that everything was done in budget, on time,
and still having enough flexibility to make any adjustments.
I dare somebody to say that they've had a
project go perfectly.
I can't remember the last time I've ever had a
project go perfectly.
It never does.
Even that project that we had in the past where
we had to restack the volumes,
we finished ahead of schedule, but there were
some issues we had to go through.
And then analytics was the other big thing.
And it was about getting everyone to understand
that we're not collecting data to make any kind
of judgment or make any decisions on any
specific person or group or department.
We're simply collecting information so that we
can inform the decision.
Mm-Hmm. What is something that you did while
you were here at UNT that probably no one or people
outside your department don't know about?
Something I did at UNT that no one or people
outside my
department don't know about? Or, you know,
something that you think, you know, was
under-recognized or
I don't know oh that's a tough one or what is
something that you wish more
people knew about I do wish that at times I
went okay I guess when I want to
talk about analytics or project management that
at times when I'm providing advice or
and it's making a suggestion it's not
necessarily a suggestion because it's my opinion
but it is actually a it's based on my
professional experience
and that's kind of one of the things I just
never really had the desire to throw around
you know, my academic background and my
knowledge. I just, I know, I was, I tend to
work in a way
where I could try, I want to try to guide
people toward those answers without them
thinking, okay,
well, we came to this conclusion because of him.
I wanted to somehow coach people into finding,
running to those. Okay, I don't, I'm sorry. I
kind of wanted to coach people into finding
those solutions themselves so I do wish that I
probably should have been a little more
straightforward about my project management
background and my analytics background and
that it wasn't simply something that I was
doing as a hobby but it was something that I was
doing professionally. Interesting well is there
anything else that I haven't asked you about that
you want to mention? I just got my license to
coach soccer. Really? Yeah, my oldest son plays
club soccer and I've been speaking with his
coach and I wanted to get a better
understanding of
their method of coaching. So to me, I thought
the best way to understand the method of
coaching is
to go through the process and be a coach myself.
And your kids are the same age as mine, right?
You have a 7-year-old and a 5-year-old?
I have a 7-year-old.
He's going to be 5 soon, I guess.
And I also have an almost 2-year-old.
I didn't even know that.
Yes, yes.
And he is trying to be like his brothers.
So take that however you will.
Well, good luck to you.
and good luck coaching
Gus is
playing soccer now too
so I know that is not an easy job no
it's fun
thank you so much for your time
I really appreciate it
you're very welcome