Name:Lorri Huddy
Title: CTW Librarian for Collaborative Projects
Organization: The CTW Library Consortium (Connecticut College-Trinity College-Wesleyan University)
Phone: (860) 297-5212
Email: <lhuddy@wesleyan.edu>
Born and raised: Born in upstate NY — lived in the Rochester area until 1996. My husband’s career meant moving to NJ (where he’s from) and then to CT.
Professional career and activities: MLS from Rutgers University — initially planned to become a Children’s or Young Adult Librarian, but switched to the School Media Specialist and Reference tracts. I worked in a few public libraries (Children’s, Young Adult, and Adult reference) and as Head Librarian at a private high school. Academic librarianship happened somewhat by chance after moving to CT — I was hired part-time for reference work at the Trinity College Library and really enjoyed working with the students. Trinity hired me as a Reference & Instruction librarian, and I also took on responsibilities as E-Resources Coordinator. The transition from print to online was creating a new form of librarianship which I found to be simultaneously exciting and challenging. I left Trinity after five years, to work on behalf of all types of libraries for the CT State Library, as the eResources Coordinator for iCONN, the CT Digital Library. I stayed only a few years because I missed the reference/research aspects of being a librarian. The CTW Library Consortium hired me in 2007 to coordinate their collaborative collection development grant activities. Due to new consortial projects, I’m still there and know how fortunate I am. The three libraries are filled with talented and hard-working people — working with them is just one of the benefits of my job.
Family: Married to Bob Huddy and we have with three grown children: Jessica, a graphic designer, and Justin and Evan, both mechanical engineers like their dad. (Is there an engineering gene? It runs in our families — both grandfathers are engineers too!)
Pets: Our empty nest is re-feathered with 3 four-legged companions: Zoltan, a Manx cat; Drea, a Maine Coon cat; and Ruby, a Brittany/Vizsla mix.
In my spare time I like to: I love to travel, but, currently, most trips involve visiting out-of-state relatives. I also like gardening, yoga, hiking, kayaking, and cross-country skiing — none of which I do enough of! Favorite past-times are watching foreign and independent movies, preferably at Trinity’s Cinestudio (a wonderful old-time movie theater complete with a crimson velvet curtain!) and listening to podcasts of NPR radio shows.
Favorite books: One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, The Brothers K by David James Duncan, Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides, The Prince of Tides by Pat Conroy, absolutely everything by Wally Lamb. Currently reading: Bill Bryson’s At Home and A.S. Byatt’s The Children’s Book.
Pet peeves/what makes me mad: I have two automobile-related pet peeves: drivers who don’t use their car blinkers or who are on cellphones or texting while driving.
Philosophy: Help change things for the better (and if you can’t help, don’t make things difficult for those who are trying.)
Most memorable career achievement: Getting my MLS while my children were young and managing to balance the demands of school, family, and work.
How/where do I see the industry in five years: We’ll be in the midst of an economic recovery, but academic library budgets will be slow to recover. Administrations may not re-fund these to pre-downturn levels until endowments are more than fully replenished. So libraries will still be forced to make difficult decisions regarding the resources they can afford to provide. There will be a need for vendors to think creatively; to offer more pay-per-view and alternative access options for all types of online resources (not just eBooks). The academic eBook market will continue to grow — along with users’ expectations. The user experience will play a significant role in determining how high and continuous this level of growth will be.
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