In this section, I highlight several projects I completed for purpose of information organization and access.
I performed an inventory of the Special Collections Department at the Oak Park Public Library in Oak Park, IL in the Spring of 2010. This project was overseen by Bleue Benton, the Collection Development Manager. The records of the collection had not been updated in quite some time and they needed a new and complete inventory before the library could decide how to handle their Special Collections moving forward. I performed the inventory and provided my assessment and suggestions for further development. Ms. Benton had this to say about my work on this project:
John Keogh’s inventory of Oak Park Public Library special collections fills a large gap for us. This is the first time in at least 50 years we’ve been able to see this information on paper. The amount of work involved is amazing…. The quality of his work is very high, and we understand and appreciate that his task covered the extremes from discovering unexpected treasures (Hans Brinker?!) to dreary tedium (Tarzan . . . , Tarzan . . . , Tarzan . . . .) The value of this project to us was multiplied geometrically by its timing. Our special collections librarian of 35 years will be retiring next week. Bill Jerousek is a walking repository of institutional memory, and his upcoming departure has us in a bit of a panic. I’ve been using this inventory in the transition process with Leigh Gavin, who will be taking over Bill’s duties. Not something to be filed away in a drawer, my copy of this inventory is already dog-eared, coffee stained, and marked up. John… showed us that he is clearly a self-starter and high producer. We found John to be hardworking, detailed, conscientious, flexible and very professional.
Oak Park Public Library Special Collections Inventory
Oak Park Public Library Special Collections Assessment Report
Here is a collection development proposal I drafted for a public library in a rural community if approximately 18,000 residents.
Collection Development Project
This is a thesaurus that I created, documenting the relationships of 77 common terms encountered in the study of astronomy. My hope was to provide a user-friendly taxonomy and data structure to clarify of the meanings and proper usage of these terms for people new to the subject.
Astronomy Thesaurus
I created a Finding Aid for a portion of the archival collection at Loyola University in Chicago. The purpose of this Finding Aid is to assist users of the archive to identify and locate information relevant to their research needs.
Loyola University Archives Finding Aid
This is a bibliography I created for a book titled History of the Transmission of Ancient Books to Modern Times, by Isaac Taylor, published in London in 1859. As an old and somewhat rare work, there exists a need to document the physical condition of this copy so that any deterioration will be caught in time to repair, to promote its use for research purposes, and also to help libraries and collectors to identify and validate others copies of this work that they may own or encounter.
Descriptive Bibliography
John the Librarian 