2014–2015 Museum Fellows Orientation to Watson Library

Librarians Katherine Borkowski and Dan Lipcan discuss the library resources and services available to the fellows

«Every fall, Watson Library is excited to welcome a new group of Museum fellows for an orientation to Watson Library, and this year was no different. Through the Museum's Fellowship Program, about fifty graduate students, museum professionals, and senior scholars from around the world come to the Met each year to conduct fellowships in art history, curatorial research, conservation, and scientific research, as well as education and public practice. For many of these fellows, the Museum's libraries are integral to the research that they do during their stay at the Met.»

The fellows gathered in the Florence and Herbert Irving Reading Room

On Friday, September 5, the 2014–2015 fellows gathered in the Florence and Herbert Irving Reading Room for their library orientation, one part of a daylong orientation to the Museum. The fellows were greeted with a warm welcome from our Chief Librarian, Ken Soehner, and our Head of Readers Services, Linda Seckelson.

Librarian Linda Seckelson, head of readers services, welcomes the fellows to Watson Library

My colleagues Dan Lipcan and PJ Raftery joined me in giving a brief history of the library, an overview of policies and procedures, instructions for accessing books and other materials, and information about the services available in the library. Like Museum research staff, fellows have stacks privileges, which means that they may go into Watson Library's book stacks to browse and obtain items themselves. So for the second half of the orientation, everyone split up into groups for a stacks tour to demystify the process of retrieving books found in WATSONLINE, our online catalog.

A view of Watson Library's book stacks

While the majority of fellows have work space in their respective departments, about of a quarter of the new fellows take up residence in Watson's carrels, which are located within the stacks.

This annual orientation is not only important for introducing the fellows to the libraries' services and resources, but it is also a great opportunity for library staff to become acquainted with this new group of researchers. We had a wonderful time meeting them, and look forward to assisting with their research throughout their time at the Museum.