James DeWalt has been the head librarian of the Social Sciences & History Department since 1995. He holds masters degrees in library science and history. As the department head, he is responsible for selecting materials for the collection, managing staff, and ensuring the library meets users' needs. The role requires balancing building specialized collections while also generalizing to serve the public. He advises new librarians to develop a diverse set of information technology skills to adapt to a changing field.

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3. James DeWalt is the head
librarian of the Social Sciences
& History Department. He has
worked as the department
head since 1995. He holds a
masters degree in library
science from the University of
Illinois and a masters of history
from Temple University. He has
been a member of ALA since
1977 and a member of RUSA
for fifteen years. He is also a
member of the Philadelphia
Area Consortium of Special
Collections Libraries (PACSCL).

5. ICKEDPEDIA

6. Mr. DeWalt says the area of library science is changing.
Where academic libraries tend to become more and more
specialized, the public library tends to generalize. Mr. DeWalt
was originally interested in becoming an academic librarian, but
began his career in the public library and felt he had already
committed to the Free Library. In this position though, he has
achieve his career goals he might not have reached in the
academic setting.

7. Mr. DeWalt uses
RUSA’s “Best Bibliographies
in History”, Library Journal,
Booklist, and Choice to
make selections for the
department collection and
YBL Library Services and
University Press for the
less popular materials.
He uses ISI Web of Knowledge to find the most cited materials to add to the collection.

8. Eight librarians and two library assistants work in the Social Sciences &
History Department. Requirements for working as a librarian are a MLIS from
an ALA accredited school. Subject specialization is preferred.

10. Mr. DeWalt says the most difficult aspect of
his job is “keeping focused on the real
everyday needs of the users, which His personal interests
are changing over time, not have changed from
building a collection linguistics when
around what I would he began to
like, and being history.
Sensitive and
responsive to
the needs
of less
capable
users.”

11. “I was influenced mostly by
friends and associates in
the library science at the
University of Illinois,
especially several who
made librarianship seem
like a worthwhile and
fascinating profession, not
at all like the stereotype
that most folks are used to.
Also, early supervisors and
administrators gave me a
sense of standards and
excellence in service and
collection building.”

12. “The room holds about 200,000 volumes
including bound periodicals. This is down
from about 250,000 from about ten years
ago after a period of collection downsizing.”

13. “Librarians serve to explain search strategies and distinguish
reliable from unreliable sources of information.”
Reference librarians in the
department find
themselves typically using
encyclopedias, Internet
resources, each other,
experience and intuition.

14. “I advise [library and information ] students to now focus on information
technology generally, not to think too narrowly within the field of
librarianship. Learn skills that can be adapted to several career paths.”
He recommends memberships to ALA and RUSA, especially for “small towns
with few libraries.” Local organizations, such as PACSCL that serves the
Philadelphia region, are very important.