Infinite Mile Awards, 2005

Individual | Team

Innovation and Creativity: Johanna Woll
Communication and Collaboration: Judith Gallagher
Results, Outcomes, and Productivity: Maria Rodrigues
Community: Margaret dePopolo

Innovation and Creativity: Johanna Woll

This award recipient has been described as "a model self-starter" — "a consummate professional," who is "extraordinarily productive and proactive." This individual has taken a 120,000-piece collection that one nominator described as "disparate, and at times, desperate," and, with astonishing entrepreneurial initiative, turned it into a "bona fide internationally known teaching and research collection."

This staff member has continually sought creative new ways to raise the profile of the collection to encourage MIT faculty and students, as well as scholars around the globe, to tap its wealth of information. She attended courses taught by MIT faculty, collaborated with editors and directors of an international online community, created a database to improve access, and has pushed to digitize the collection so that it finds the widest audience possible. "She has won the respect of her colleagues and the faculty for her smart and thoughtful stewardship" said one nominator. Another commented, "Her oversight has led to the increased usage of, and prestige for, this department in particular, and the Libraries and MIT in general."

Her creative approach also makes her a strong contributor to the committees on which she serves. She "remains impressively up to date on new developments in the field" and is likely to be the one who "clarifies potential confusion in procedure, or defuses tension between different personalities." In the words of one nominator," she is a colleague of the highest caliber in her attention to creating a workplace comfortable for all." Another nominator remarked that she is "always ready with help or the cloudy-day quip."

For reorganizing the Aga Khan visual archives into a well-respected and accessible teaching collection, and for her contribution of "good ideas and perceptive insights" across the Libraries, the 2005 Infinite Mile Award in the category of Innovation and Creativity goes to Johanna Woll.

Communication and Collaboration: Judith Gallagher

Serving as a friendly and reliable resource to staff, assuming a crucial liaison role between the Libraries and other Institute departments, improving the work processes of a program that touches the lives of us all — these are just a few examples of this individual’s important contributions over the past year.

This staff member took on a new realm of responsibilities for a program that was driven by an archaic online system and bogged down in arcane and rigid procedures. Working collaboratively with other program staff, Institute staff, and library staff, this individual was instrumental in developing good practice and implementing efficient procedures that posed the least impact on library staff. Organizational skills and attention to billions and billions of details brought a sense of order out of chaos. (Move over, Carl Sagan!)

With little formal training and little time to learn, this individual attended demos and information sessions to gain a firm understanding of systems, procedures, and policies and then shared that knowledge with library staff. Her ability and patience in translating information to staff is exemplary. She is quick to offer assistance and, when an obscure problem is encountered (of which there are many!), she is tenacious in tracking down the solution. Library staff find her approachable, pleasant, and professional. Staff from departments outside the Libraries appreciate the cooperative and responsive relationships that have emerged.

While officially a member of another department, this individual came on board the “Payroll Express” at a time of great change in Administrative Services, where she now spends 20% of her time and is considered part of the team. For helping us pull together, work together, and hold together at a time when our payroll program might otherwise have fallen apart, the 2005 Infinite Mile Award in the category of Communication and Collaboration goes to Judith Gallagher.

Results, Outcome and Productivity: Maria Rodrigues

This recipient has successfully managed such a dizzying array of projects, committees, and initiatives that a nominator has quipped — with only mild hyperbole — that this individual “could easily run a medium-sized country.” And at every turn, this person’s open style of communication has won the confidence and friendship of colleagues.

Within the local unit, this staff member provides energetic and humane leadership. According to one nominator, this individual is “an incredibly supportive supervisor,” eager to help train and mentor staff to meet the challenges of the job. To local staff, this person is not only a supervisor, but also “a spirited, friendly, trusted, and respected coworker.” Within the home library, this staff member is also a strong contributor to working groups. This person’s data-gathering has been critical to a group that manages space shared by two major collections. To another group working to strengthen the home library’s integrated service point, the desk experience and “good working relationships” of this individual have been invaluable.

But what really sets this recipient apart is her highly effective management of large, complex projects. Recently she faced the daunting task of fitting an entire branch collection into a crowded divisional library. The result? Five words that every administrator loves to hear: “completed — early and under budget.” The list goes on. She co-chaired the local arrangements group for a highly successful international conference. She managed the creation of a large website that now provides authoritative, up-to-date documentation for all processing units. And, at this very moment, she is presiding over the complex merger of two formerly separate processing units in Barker and Science, and working with a colleague in Rotch to coordinate system-wide training for the newest version of ALEPH. We used to scoff at those cloning rumors, but now we’re beginning to wonder.

Sadly, we can’t grant her a medium-sized country to run. But we can and gladly do bestow the 2005 Infinite Mile Award for Results, Outcome, and Productivity on Maria Rodrigues.

Community: Margaret dePopolo

This award recipient could have won in any — or all — of the categories. Her accomplishments are legion, and she is without doubt a community leader.

Many nominators underscore her personal warmth: her “wonderful smile” and “supportive aura”; her thoughtfulness as an “avid practitioner of the spontaneous Thank You message” — long before the Spot Award program began. One nominator says that she can turn a bad day around with a well-placed word of praise. Another writes that she builds a “self-rewarding circle” of support and encouragement which, in turn, fosters positive working relationships in other departments. In the words of yet another nominator, she is a “gentle, powerful force of thoughtfulness, fun and humanity for the MIT Libraries.”

In groups, she is a “courteous, careful and thoughtful listener” who hears all sides and, in minutes and reports, weaves together “a wonderful tapestry” to represent a cohesive statement of the group’s work. Nevertheless, she is also fearless in raising difficult issues and questioning unexamined assumptions. As a leader, she is “committed, resilient, and inspiring,” actively promoting “cross-training, collaboration, and general openness … so that all staff feel involved, informed and appreciated. ”

A “humanist in all senses,” she is devoted to providing the best public service to all patrons. She embodies high-quality, innovative, and fully engaged services to the MIT community. Always a champion of the library patron, she has developed deep insight into the community served by her library. And her relationships with faculty and colleagues inform every aspect of her work.

She is also an energetic innovator or, as one nominator puts it, a “pollinator,” who brings together “people and ideas to see what grows.” And the innovations that have grown from a lifetime’s work at MIT have been spectacular. She spearheaded creation of the new GIS service; of an early and highly successful Integrated Service Point; and of an endowment to support and develop the Aga Khan Program. She is also responsible for establishing a separate facility for the Rotch Visual Collection. In a brief stint as Acting Head of Archives, she became the “diva of donor relations,” acquired valuable new collections, and renovated the “dePopolo pit.” And for 18 years she angled, lobbied, and planned, she dreamed and toiled to bring about what will surely prove her greatest physical legacy to MIT and the Libraries: the transformation of old Rotch Library into one of the most beautiful and fruitful spaces in the Institute.

In gratitude for a professional lifetime spent building the spaces and cultivating the living communities where learning and discovery thrive, we are delighted to name this year’s recipient of the MIT Libraries’ Infinite Mile Award for Community: Margaret dePopolo.