Libraries Administration
John McDonald is the Assistant Director for User Services & Technology Innovation at the Libraries of The Claremont Colleges. He oversees Access Services, the Claremont Colleges Digital Library, Learning & Outreach Programs and Services, and Library Information Technology. Prior to coming to Claremont he was the Acquisitions Librarian at Caltech in Pasadena, California. He is a frequent speaker at ALA Conferences and the Charleston Conference for Acquisitions & Collection Development. His research interests include bibliometric analysis of information usage, especially online journal usage and citation analysis. A published version of his most recent research on the subject appeared in the January 2007 issue of JASIST, titled “Understanding Online Journal Usage: A Statistical Analysis of Citation and Use.” (PDF) He is currently working towards the completion of his doctoral dissertation, which focuses on statistical analysis of online journal usage, but more importantly, welcomed his first child, Charlotte, in December 2006.
Librarians
Alexandra Chappell is a reference and instruction librarian at Honnold/Mudd Library, focusing on general reference and outreach, as well as library instruction for first-year students. She is interested in exploring how new technologies can be used in the library and is chair of a library committee devoted to improving the public interface of the library catalog. Alex has a Masters in Library and Information Science from San Jose State University and a BA in Art from Pomona College. Prior to her career as a librarian, she worked as a fine-press letterpress printer at the Yolla Bolly Press and as an editor and production coordinator for museum publications at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.
Sam Kome came to the Libraries of The Claremont Colleges from the University of North Carolina School of Information and Library Science, where he worked as the Help Desk Manager. As Manager of Library Information Technology (LIT) for the Libraries he leads a team of IT professionals who collaborate with the Libraries staff to develop new tools and services for The Colleges community. LIT is focused on an ever-improving toolset for patrons and staff including an improved catalog, new communication and collaboration capabilities, and access to large and exotic (GIS, video) datasets.
