The College's library system comprised of Baker-Berry Library, Dana Biomedical Library, Matthews-Fuller Health Sciences Library at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, Feldberg Business and Engineering Library, Kresge Physical Sciences Library, Paddock Music Library, Rauner Special Collections Library, Sherman Art Library and the storage library, located near Jesse's Steak, Seafood and Tavern in Hanover includes 165 librarians assisted by approximately 200 student employees, Horrell said.
The librarians are generally split into three divisions public services, technical services and preservations, according to Horrell.
Public service librarians serve as subject liaisons to each of the College's academic departments and staff information and reference desks in the libraries. In addition, public service librarians occasionally teach classes.
Technical services librarians work to acquire new books, license new information and oversee "Metadata" by organizing the library's vast online catalogs through services such as Summon, an aggregate search engine that provides access to the content from a variety of libraries.
Preservation librarians are responsible for ensuring that the library's physical collection is kept in good condition.
A librarian's primary job, regardless of his or her division, is to assist students in navigating the library's databases, according to Horrell.
"One of the most important things about the Dartmouth library staff is the service philosophy," Horrell said. "We have a first-rate staff who understand that the reason we're here is to support the students and faculty."
The minimum requirement for a librarian position is possession of a master's degree in library science, according to Horrell. Many of Dartmouth's librarians have professional degrees and wide-ranging experience and academic preparation.
Special Collections librarian Jay Satterfield, who has worked at the College for almost eight years, was drawn to his career via a background in archaeology and anthropology. As an anthropology major in college, he found that he enjoyed researching material artifacts, he said.
Shortly after completing his master's degree in library science, Satterfield became the assistant to the curator of special collections at the University of Iowa. He went on to complete a PhD in American studies and worked at the University of Chicago for six years before accepting his current job at the College.
"As an anthropologist, I was a cultural critic that was always my mindset," Satterfield said. "I really got to dive into what it meant to be a book in a culture and what it meant about the text and the culture surrounding it. I knew that I'd be able to share that joy through teaching."
English language and literature librarian Laura Braunstein, who has also worked at the College for eight years, said she originally intended to be an English professor but chose a route that would place her in an academic setting with more job security.
"Something like less than 50 perfect of PhDs actually end up getting tenured jobs," Braunstein said. "Many people who get PhDs in humanities end up doing something else. Dartmouth has been my first professional job the students are great, and it's a wonderful place to be."
Laura Cousineau, the newly-appointed director of the College's two biomedical libraries, said she had no previous experience with medicine before she became a librarian.
Cousineau started her career as a reference librarian at Duke University, where she worked for 10 years. She was later hired as a medical librarian at the Medical University of South Carolina, where she learned of evidence-based medicine, a practice in which doctors research studies applicable to their patients and develop a strategy of treatment based on available evidence.
"Library work is right in the middle of that," Cousineau said. "You've got to find relevant material in an effective and efficient manner to help identify the best treatment."
Many of the College's librarians spend at least part of their term guiding classes and developing relationships with students and faculty.
As a subject liaison, Braunstein works with the English department, the Institute for Writing and Rhetoric and various Writing 5 classes. She teaches approximately 15 class sessions per term and collaborates with honors English students pursuing upper-level research, she said.
"I've written recommendations for grad schools and jobs as well as mentored students who are interested in becoming librarians," she said. "They feel comfortable with us in ways that they don't with faculty."
This term, special collections librarians taught 91 classes over 27 departments, according to Satterfield. Typically, Satterfield teaches two or three classes a week, he said.
"We really work hard to integrate the collections into the curriculum," Satterfield said. "I'll look through course listings and see what classes are being taught. A couple of weeks ago I did a class on James Joyce. The class gets offered every couple years, and every time it's taught we have a class about the publishing history of Ulysses.'"
Although certain librarians may not be experts in some of the material they teach, an understanding of literary history and the context of publishing can offer a unique contribution to a class, Satterfield said.
"It tends to be that I will know a narrow piece of the book's history," Satterfield said. "I will know the publishing history of [John] Milton but not necessarily a lot about Milton's poetry. The historical context of the book helps students understand the book."
The recent economic downturn and budget cuts across the College's departments have had mixed effects on the College libraries. A recent Inside Higher Education article reported that the percentage of college budgets dedicated to libraries has declined for the 14th straight year.
The organization of Dartmouth's libraries has helped in the face of economic trouble, as the libraries' "core services" are centralized, Horrell said. Although the library system has been affected by reductions, it has not been targeted more than other areas of the College.
Rauner Special Collections Library was able to take advantage of the recession, according to Satterfield.
"When the stock market tanked, our funds took a big dip," Satterfield said. "At the same time, auction prices of rare books and manuscripts also collapsed. We were able to acquire a few books and manuscripts that at other times would have seemed too expensive for us."
The library also purposefully saves money from year to year to help endure economic uncertainty, enabling librarians to eventually "buy something really amazing," Satterfield said.
