Ms. Frances Malaney

Perhaps it was her love of reading that brought Frances Malaney to the Library or perhaps it was the Library that fueled her appetite for good books.  In either case, Frances found her niche in the halls of Sterling Memorial Library.  A former teacher of Latin studies, Frances has been surrounded by books and learning her entire life.  As a Catalog Librarian for the Arts & Sciences team of Sterling Memorial Library, Frances has responsibility for preparing new materials to go on the shelf.

Her work as a Catalog Librarian is extremely important to her, explains Joan Swanekamp, Head of the Library Catalog Department, who has worked with Frances for many years.  "It's her number one priority."  Frances takes tremendous pride in her profession.

Over the Years, Frances has demonstrated a willingness to assist with any task that needed to be done, explains Anthony Oddo, Catalog Librarian and Arts & Sciences Team Leader.  Always pleasant and cheerful, she would often call upon her knowledge of Lain to come up with just the right saying for any situation.  "Her work ethic is fantastic," he adds.  "She is always on time, rarely misses a day of work, and is totally committed to the task at hand."

Frances is very much into routines, explains Mr. Oddo.  She is methodical in her work, takes lunch at the same time every day, and routinely uses the stairs instead of the elevators.  "Frances is fromthe old school of thought," notes Mr. Oddo.  Her favorite saying was "if it's misfiled, it's lost since no one can retrieve it."

"She is an amazing woman," notes Ms. Swanekamp.  "At age 85, she still walks to work each and every day."  Although she now works part-time, she is just as dedicated to her work and to maintaining the high cataloging standards she helped establish.

Not many people remember the early years in cataloging, before computers and automated filing became the norm.  Frances monitored the filing with the strictness of an army drill sergeant on rounds.  Beginning filers were instructed to leave their cards "above the rod," notes Steven Arakawa, Catalog Librarian for the Arts & Sciences Team at Sterling Memorial Library.  In other words, the cards could not be locked into place in the filing drawers and officially filed, until Frances had passed judgment on whether the card has been inserted correctly in the existing sequence.  And woe to those who did not make the grade.

As Mr. Arakawa explains:  "if the cards was not filed in the correct place, a slip would be left, but as I recall, the filer was expected to review the rules and figure out why the card was out of place."  Sometimes Frances would give subtle hints to help the would-be cataloger figure out the error.

"I also thing it was the rigorous and necessary attention to detail emphasized in filing that helped new staff make the transition into the culture of cataloging," explains Mr. Arakawa.  "If someone caught on to the details of filing in the Sterling public catalog (the largest and most complex of the filing assignments, with Beinecke a close second), it was a pretty good bet that the person would excel in cataloging as well."

Even many years later, long after the practice of filing cards became obsolete, a research would sometimes have to check the public card catalog to verify some ambiguous piece of information or track down a particular name.  Lo and behold, it was still possible to track something down because of the high quality of the filing.

The Library staff members are like family to Frances, explains Ms. McGraw.  And, although she plans to retire on July1, her commitment and pleasant manner will long be remembered within the walls of Sterling and everywhere she went.

From Working@Yale, May/June 2002