Donnie Boman
USM MLIS 2023
Hi, my name is Donnie Boman. I am currently working on my MLIS at The University of Southern Mississippi and am planning to graduate in May 2023. I grew up in Mobile, Ala., and received my bachelor’s degree in journalism from The University of Southern Mississippi in Hattiesburg in 2005. While working on my undergraduate degree I worked at USM’s Cook Library as a non-print cataloger for a few years and decided that libraries were where I wanted to be. After moving to New York, NY, in 2005, I got a job as a serials cataloger at The Metropolitan Museum of Art and also spent time working in their corporate and legal archives department. Moving on from the Met I got a job as a billing and technical services coordinator at Kenyon & Kenyon LLP. Since then, I’ve stayed in law firm libraries and legal research departments.
Right now, I am the Electronic Resources Manager in the Research & Knowledge Services Department at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP. Building on all of my previous roles, I have nearly 20 years of experience in library technical services, research, knowledge management, and business development, primarily in the legal field. I’ve worked on these types of projects at every stage, from company research and data analysis to presentations and organization of material.
Projects
- The Flood of 1966
A Library Guide – The Flood of 1966: Florence, Italy (LIS 501 – Fall 2021)
I created this library guide for LIS 501 as a way to give information about the devastating flood that hit Florence, Italy in 1966 and destroyed an untold amount of art, culture, and history. It was a personal interest that I was glad to share with the class and have kept it online because I thought others might find it interesting as well. The creation of this guide helped me learn a new way to put together a set of teaching/learning materials in an orderly fashion. In addition, I learned more about the flood of 1966 myself. It was a great project and I plan to use these learned web and presentation ideas for future work projects.
- Open Stack Libraries
Open Stack Libraries presentation (LIS 636 – Spring 2021)
This is a Prezi presentation I created for LIS 636 regarding open stack libraries. It discused the history of library stack design through to the development of open stack designs as well as giving ideas about the future. Even though a lot of print material is now available electronically, there will always need to be a place for print stacks in some way or another. This presentation allowed me to learn (and show others) about this history and was very helpful in learning a new platform for giving out information. I will likely use this project more for the presentation skills learned than the open stack design history, but it was an important project for me.
Assignments
- Library Budget 2021-2022
Jack & Jordie LLP – 2021-2022 Library Department Budget (LIS 505 – Summer 2021 )
Compiled as the final group project for LIS 505, this law firm library department budget was a great, yet difficult, exercise in putting one together. It takes good management to be able to put together a coherent budget and this was an extremely helpful project to learn some of those skills. Even though the library of the law firm the budget reflected was actually named after my dogs(!), it used both masked and fictional data to make it a good exercise in how to create a working plan. I helped with organizing the project and put together the final product. My written contributions are noted on the page and in the document. (*Note: Permission was obtained to post this from the other group members.)
- Library Budget 2023
2023 Library Budget Overview – Video Presentation (LIS 609 – Summer 2022)
I created this video presentation of a library budget overview for a fictional library for LIS 609 in Summer 2022. Using a law firm library budget for fiscal year 2023, this loosely followed up on the 2021-2022 Library Department Budget I worked on in Summer 2021 for LIS 505. This was an extremely helpful exercise in learning how to verbally present the department’s budget numbers and synthesize the data and narrative succinctly. This type of exercise will help me be prepared for presenting something like this in my current role to the heads of finance, etc., who will be looking to me to explain the library’s budget forecast.
- Community Analysis
Community Analysis of Skadden Arps (LIS 511 – Spring 2022)
This community analysis was done for LIS 511 in the Spring of 2022 . I put it together based on my current employer, Skadden Arps, using both internal and external information. It was a great exercise for learning about the organization I am with and could actually help me in the collection decisions we make for our library department. It is something that could be done every year so that I keep current on our community of attorneys and staff and can continue to be able to make informed decisions for the firm.
- Collections Development
Collections Development Policy – University of South Central Mississippi Library (LIS 511 – Spring 2022)
This collections development policy was a huge project put together for LIS 511. Using multiple sources as policies to build from, the final result contained all of the pieces a typical library would use to justify the building of their collections. Community analysis, policy goals, and a patron needs assessment were also included. While I helped organize and put together the final product, I also directly wrote the sections on video formats, weeding and de-selection processes, gifts, and copyright guidelines. Working on this policy was great for me for my current job as we have been looking to develop our own collection development policy. Learning about all of the necessary elements that will help guide us in our decision making process was extremely helpful. It was also a lesson in both putting together a coherent document using elements written by different people as well as helping to coordinate the work by all. (*Note: Permission was obtained to post this from the other group members.)
Instructional Videos
- Library Catalog Instruction
Library Catalog Instruction (LIS 590 – Spring 2022)
This instructional video on using my company’s library catalog was one of the videos I created for LIS 590 in Spring 2002. This was a good introduction to creating short teaching videos for functions our attorneys and staff can use to help them in their everyday work. While this was just an overview of the catalog, I was able to give a lot of information in just a short amount of time. The skills used to put this and other videos together for the class will definitely help me teach users about various library functions in my current role as Electronic Resources Manager.
- Library Database Searching
Library Database Searching (LIS 590 – Spring 2022)
Using video presentation skills I learned in LIS 590, I created a video on library database searching for the LexisNexis Matthew Bender site. This video could potentially be used by attorneys at my law firm. As I mentioned for the previous teaching video created for LIS 590, this was an opportunity to hone my ability to use video capture and voiceover to create a short training session that could impart a quick lesson for our users. These short videos are helpful in that they aim give a good lesson in an overview of something or perhaps one discrete task but not overwhelm the patrons with too much information in the process. I will continue to produce and use these types of videos in my current role.
- Password Managers
What Is a Password Manager? (LIS 590 – Spring 2022)
Another video I produced in LIS 590, this was an overview of password managers and different free and subscription sites to use for this function. Unlike other videos I made for the course, this was done for products not currently used by my company. This was more of an informative lesson about why password managers should be used and took the viewer through a set of tasks outside of our current network to which they may not have had any exposure at all. The lesson learned in the creation of this video was that I was able to make a short video full of good step-by-step screenshots and give a bird’s eye view of a topic all in a short lesson without giving information overload.
My Teaching Philosophy
“Give a man a fish, and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish, and you feed him for a lifetime.” My philosophy is all about self-sufficiency. I completely believe that if students can acquire the tools to do things for themselves, they will be ready for the world as it comes at them. However, it takes a lot of work to catch a fish, and one needs many tools in their tackle box. There are many skills to learn: identifying the right place to catch the fish, identifying fish, baiting a hook, learning about the hook itself, understanding the fishing rod, etc., etc., up to and including cooking the fish! Such as it goes with teaching. Skills must be built on top of skills and around other skills. I appreciate the difficulty of this process, so I strive to teach students how to equip their mental tackleboxes so that they can depend on their own abilities for a lifetime. (Thanks, Dad!)
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