What’s it like to start a new job when everyone’s working from home? Six people have joined the Division of Libraries during New York’s mandated shutdown or just before. We interviewed them both at a time to ask how it's going and help us get to know them.
Like many people drawn to library work, Courtney Patterson has broad interests. Her dual degree from Howard University is in journalism and public relations, with a minor in theater arts. She intends to get back into acting, but she’s also into circus performance, and for the past six years has been an aerialist.
“I haven't had a performance in a while due to COVID,” Patterson says, “and I'm not sure when the next opportunity will be. Hopefully, I can get back to training again since it's rumored studios will be opening soon.”
Formerly a library assistant at Columbia University, Patterson began working at Dibner in mid-February, so she had about a month to get to know her colleagues before we went remote. Since then, she finds Zoom’s screen sharing feature useful for learning more skills from her colleagues, and Slack for maintaining a sense of community.
“Our student workers seemed happy to connect with us over Slack to share videos, pet pictures, etc.,” she says. “I think it gave them a connection they terribly miss having with their peers. I'd also argue it keeps our small staff closer, too.” Patterson expanded her skillset recently by helping to create a finding aid to assist visually impaired users as they look at images online. With the fall semester in mind, she’s installing Aleph on her laptop to process fall course reserve requests from faculty. Going back to work onsite will have one drawback, she says, thinking of Holly, her Tabby American shorthair. “I’ll miss having my cat next to me.”
March 16, 2020, was the first day of shutdown for NYC-based Division of Libraries staff. It was also Juliette Ciaccia’s first day of work at the NYU Press. Although she met a few colleagues in person during the interview process at the Press office on Broadway, she’s met most of her 26 colleagues only through Zoom. There’s nothing strange to her about working from home, though.
“I started working from home ten years ago,” Ciaccia (pronounced “cha-cha”) says. “The big adjustment for me would have been going to an office every day. I thought, ‘I’m going to need a monthly Metrocard, I’m going to need clothes!’” Ciaccia lives in Brooklyn with her husband and two children, aged 12 and ten. In her role at the Press, she works with vendors in South Korea, Saskatchewan, South Africa, and other distant locales, so Zoom will always be part of her routine.
“I spent a lot of time in Bobst,” says Ciaccia, an NYU alumna who majored in journalism. She went into magazine production, and over the past 18 years, has worked for many of the best-known journals, including Modern Bride, The New Yorker, GQ, Cosmopolitan, Seventeen, and InStyle. While at NYU, Ciaccia co-captained the cross-country and track and field teams and has been running ever since. Marathons are among the shorter races she runs; she has several 50- and 100-milers to her credit and is a Road Runners Club of America certified running coach.
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