Awarding Excellence: Quality Service Award

Mary Piper (third from left) along with members of the Quality Service Award Committee (l to r) Kevin Grace, Victoria Montavon, and Ben Kline

Mary Piper is a familiar name and face to many faculty and students in the College of Medicine. As an associate librarian in the Health Sciences Library for over 25 years, Mary selects titles for the book collection. What many people do not know, however, is that she also spends part of her time managing the collections of the Henry R. Winkler Center for the History of the Health Professions.

Mary’s work for the Winkler Center during the past nine months was to prepare and move the Center’s collections from their long-time home in Wherry Hall to a newly constructed space on the R level of the Donald C. Harrison Health Sciences Library. Here they are readily accessible to researchers who visit the Center and are better cared for in a climate-controlled environment. Mary planned, implemented, directed, and completed this project, and, according to university librarian and dean Victoria A. Montavon, “the results are exemplary because of Mary’s dedication and impeccable attention to detail.” As collections accumulated over the years in Wherry, some were in disarray with important materials scattered throughout the facility. Mary not only developed schemes for identifying related collections, but also effectively mapped them to their new locations in the Health Sciences Library – no small task. The result is a collections schema that is logical, orderly, and sustainable.

In addition to planning the move, Mary also implemented the entire process, directing the moving team and overcoming some daunting obstacles such as working in dirty and uncomfortable conditions in Wherry. The moving team had estimated that the physical move would take about 20 days. Because of Mary’s expert planning and guidance, the process took only 15 days, resulting in considerable savings of both time and money.

For her extraordinary efforts, Mary received the University of Cincinnati Libraries’ Quality Service Award, which recognizes the fine work of library staff who strive to provide the best service to users as well as to their colleagues. The award is presented three times per year.

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