Description
- Abstract:
- Gayle Lynch begins by discussing how she decided on a whim to apply for a job at Brown and was immediately hired to work in the library.She began typing German book orders for Professor Schulz.She leraned to use the new technology of the keypunch machine and then the Selectric electric typewriter with twelve carbon copies. She was promoted to secretary to Harold Clark, head of the Order Department. She talks about moving over to Archives in 1972 and finding her niche. She discusses working with Brown alumni and others with Brown connections and about how personable it was before technology took over. She talks about how she and other members of the staff would do side jobs typing graduate students' dissertations and how sorry she is that they no longer do subject headings for them. She talks about how there used to be a New Members' Tea where staff could get to know one another, and how morale was improved. She goes on to mention some embarassing moments concerning the library's lack of a dress code and goes on to discuss the lingering bad effects on staff morale of the library's attempted reorganization. She talks about the union's coming into the library and how she was grandfathered in and never joined. She expresses regret at the university's becoming more corporate and less of a family. Gayle talks about how students used to fill the library during exam periods, literally lying all over the floor and how there was always food for the staff -- one time Mr Chang, head of the East Asian Collection, taught them how to make eggrolls and they sold them to raise money. She finishes by noting that they did a lot of fun things which greatly helped morale but the work always got done, and now she is looking forward to retirement.
Access Conditions
- Rights
- In Copyright
- Restrictions on Use
- Collection is open for research.
Citation
"Interview with Gayle Lynch"
(2014).
Rock50 Oral History Collection.
Brown Digital Repository. Brown University Library.
https://repository.library.brown.edu/studio/item/bdr:697433/
Relations
Has Parts:
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Interview with Gayle Lynch
- Type: Stream
- Order: 1
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Interview with Gayle Lynch
- Type: Pdf
- Order: 2
Collection:
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Rock50 Oral History Collection
This collection contains oral history interviews with longtime members of the Brown University Library staff, in celebration of the Rockefeller’s Library’s fiftieth anniversary in 2014. The interviews were conducted by Brown librarians Carina Cournoyer and Karen Bouchard. Staff members represent …...