Interview with Jean M. Almand, June 13, 2013

Partial Transcript: The Library Science department just had two full time faculty: Imogene Simpson and Miss Vera Grinstead... we brought in more later.

Segment Synopsis: Jean talks about going from being a student at Western Kentucky University to becoming the Science Librarian, and the massive automation project the library underwent.

Keywords: Anita Sanders; Betty Miller Nichols; Bob Rees; Bowling Green Business University; David Runner; Deborah Huebotter; Earl Wassom; Gaylord; George Moore; Henry Hardin; Nelda Sims; Pat Custed; punch cards; Southern Bell Telephone and Telegraph; Susan Todd; Thompson Complex; Virginia Dent Neel

Subjects: Library Automation Oral History WKU Libraries WKU Science Library

Partial Transcript: We moved the Science Library to the 8th and 9th floor of Cravens in the Fall, in the Spring of 1994.

Segment Synopsis: Jean Almand talks about moving the science collection into Cravens library and increasing automation. Great Margie Helm story!

Keywords: Basketball jump circle; Dero Downing; Discovery of DNA; Donald Zacharias; Dr. Michael Binder; ERIC database; ID cards; Interlibrary Loan; Kern Alexander; Library of Congress cataloging; Margie Helm; Online databases; Sally Ann Koenig Strickler; Thompson Complex; Tom Meredith; Wilma Adcock

Subjects: Jean M. Almand, 1927 - Oral History WKU Libraries Oral History Project WKU Science Library

Partial Transcript: I'm sure that there are people that are completing term papers with never darkening the door, because so many periodicals are online, all the indexes are online, and you're not required to turn in index cards to prove that you did the search.

Segment Synopsis: Recalls helping faculty and students complete research, and the Coal Science Program.

Keywords: Baker and Taylor approval plan; Coal Science Program; Collection Development; Diane Rutledge; Henry Hardin; Index Medicus; Janice Masannat; Linda Allan; Norm Holy; Parking at WKU; Publish or Perish; Subject headings; Wei Ping Pan; Working hours

Subjects: Jean M. Almand, 1927- Oral History WKU Libraries Oral History Project WKU Science Library

Partial Transcript: We had a dumbwaiter that we sent the book trucks up and down to shelve the books that was in the workroom, and it went to the three levels... Dr. Farina, Donald K., we would put him in a chair and let him go down into the stacks in that dumb elevator.

Segment Synopsis: Sent the professor down to the stacks in a dumbwaiter, while the Math students "gazed at the wall."

Keywords: Chemistry faculty; Dr. Craig Baird; Dumbwaiter; medical students; Orthopedic surgeons; Thompson Complex

Subjects: Jean M. Almand, 1927- Oral History WKU Libraries Oral History Project WKU Science Library

Partial Transcript: I remember at least two suicides during my tenure there; I was in the Science Library, so I knew about John Cudd after the fact, but I don't think we've ever figured out how he got the window open, because those windows were supposed to be sealed.

Segment Synopsis: Jean talks about sad events in the library, but also how much she loved her job. The reason for moving Science Library to Cravens.

Keywords: Chemical genealogy assignment; David Runner; Dr. Lowell Shanks; Exams on reserve; Gary Whittle; Jeannie Butler; John Cudd; Lucy Daniels; Ogden College; Photocopying; Suicides in library

Subjects: Jean M. Almand, 1927- Oral History WKU Libraries Oral History Project WKU Science Library

Partial Transcript: Dr. Pat Jenkins, who is a family physician at Somerset, was one of my very favorite student workers in the time that I was there. Pat had such a wonderful personality and he was so good looking too.

Segment Synopsis: Recalls some of her favorite students who became successful, and former colleagues.

Keywords: ALA accreditation; Alice Rowe; Betty Brightup; Connie Foster; Don Brightup; Dr. Pat Jenkins; Evelyn Thurman, Nancy Solley, Imogene Simpson; Fina Simpson; Gay Perkins; Jerry Gifford; Nancy Steen; Peggy Wright; Rob Hornung; Rough River; Sally Ann Koenig Strickler; Switchboard operator; Vanderbilt University; Word for the day

Subjects: Jean M. Almand, 1927- Oral History WKU Libraries Oral History Project WKU Science Library

Partial Transcript: Gay was the first person with a doctor's degree that we hired.

Segment Synopsis: Talks about former librarians and first doctorates on library faculty. NOTE: Ms. Almand says in this interview that Alan Logsdon is a lawyer, but he has stated that this is not the case, though he did work in the Law Library at WKu from January 1984 to May 1987.

Keywords: Alan Logsdon; Cindy Etkins; Computer faculty; Curtis Logsdon; Dana Boden; Fina Simpson; Gene Whicker; George Moore; Greg Hudnall; Interlibrary Loan; Library Instruction; Lucy Daniels; Physics faculty; Rose Onewski; Sarah Helen Gleaves; Susan Tucker Gore; Therese Baker

Subjects: Jean M. Almand, 1927- Oral History WKU Libraries Oral History Project WKU Science Library

Partial Transcript: I'll tell you the connection between Therese and this project. When I was first talking about doing this in Department of Public Services at a staff meeting, I asked all the other faculty if you know people who are now retired that I should talk to because I need to compile a list. And she sent me a whole list of people like Fina Simpson and you, and all these people that I wouldn't have know about with all the contact information that she remembered about them, and that list became the impetus, that was the kernel of this project, so we owe a lot to Therese.

Segment Synopsis: Terri Baker's assistance with getting this project started; secretary who worked in Technical Services, jumped into the empty swimming pool.

Keywords: Robert Harbison; Susan Todd; Therese Baker; WKU Owensboro Library

Subjects: Jean M. Almand, 1927- Oral History WKU Libraries Oral History Project WKU Science Library

Partial Transcript: Pat's husband was a Church of Christ minister here in Franklin. Just a sidebar which is absolutely insignificant; I was married for nearly 25 years, and as I've told people, my husband traded me in for a later model. Pat told me several years after it happened, she said they went to my husband to marry them, he was a minister at the Church of Christ, he refused to do it. I said "thank you."

Segment Synopsis: Former librarians met and married while working at WKU Libraries.

Keywords: Constance Mills; Earl Wassom; Jonathan Jeffrey; Library romance; Marv Leavy; Nancy Baird; Pat Hodges; Rebecca Shrewsbury Leavy; Riley Handy; Sally Ann Koenig Strickler; Spalding College, Louisville, KY

Subjects: Jean M. Almand, 1927- Oral History WKU Libraries Oral History Project WKU Science Library

Partial Transcript: We had a real nice lunch and we went into the living room, and Fina stood there and she said "Helen, what have you done to this living room; something is different." And her husband was back in the house and he said, "The ironing board is down; she had it up every day for years. She had to iron something before she went to work everyday."

Segment Synopsis: Talks about other personalities in and around Bowling Green, KY

Keywords: Daughters of the American Revolution; Debby Gabbard Shain; Fina Simpson; Helen Skees; Joe Will - Architect of Unitarian Church; Leon Vincent; Pat Redelsheimer; Pat Vincent; Retirement; Social Sciences Librarian

Subjects: Jean M. Almand, 1927- Oral History WKU Libraries Oral History Project WKU Science Library

Partial Transcript: I don't think it ever happened in the library at Western,but I know that in the building - we had so many international students, and we had students whose living conditions maybe weren't what they would like for them to be, and of course we had nice restrooms, lounges on every floor with couches, vending machines, we had showers in the Chemistry Department, if you had an accident you could take a shower, and I'm convinced that there were people who lived in that building.

Segment Synopsis: Fruitless search for ghosts in the library

Keywords: Ghost stories; international students; Planetarium; Thompson Complex; Van Meter Auditorium

Subjects: Jean M. Almand, 1927- Oral History WKU Libraries Oral History Project WKU Science Library