TS-SIS Long-Time Member Profile:
Joni Lynn Cassidy
Current Position
President, Cassidy Cataloguing Services, Inc.
Jonicass1dy@yahoo.com
On this page:
Place And Date Of Birth
Patchogue, NY – May 4, 1954
Educational Background
- AAS 1974 Suffolk County Community College Business Administration
- BFA 1976 Dowling College – Fine Arts
- MLS 1978 Long Island University, Palmer School of Library Science
Interests/Hobbies
My beautiful Bernese Mountain Dogs, Photography, Films most people don’t end up seeing, Reading, ESP experiences and Everyone else’s pets.
Inspiration For Becoming A Law Librarian
Fate. My mentors were Barbara Tanzer and Ed O’Connell of New York County Lawyers Association. They both taught both taught me “Law” to add to my cataloging skills. In addition, Barbara taught me how to laugh at myself and spot the joy in simple things.
Current Position Challenges
Sometimes communicating the value of what we do can be the most challenging. Even our own colleagues, non-technical-services librarians, don’t always understand what we do and how important the quality and consistency are to the end-users’ ability to locate items they are searching for.
Prior Positions/Employment
- Adjunct Professor – Palmer School of Library and Information Science, Long Island University – 2003/2005, 2006
- Adjunct Professor – Queens College, - Graduate School of Library and Information Science – 2005-
- Law Cataloger – New York County Lawyers Association – 1982/85
- Originated Nursing Library for Elizabeth Seton College, NYC branch campus – 1983/84
- Public Services Librarian – Mercantile Library, NYC – 1982/83
- Young Adult/Audio-Visual Librarian – Pt. Jefferson Free Library, LI – 1981/82
- Originated Job and Education Information Center – Eastern Long Island – 1979/1981
- Reference Librarian (p/t) – Suffolk County Community College – 1978/1982
'Crazy' Non-Professional Activity
I’m not sure I ever considered it crazy, but others did. I planned an outdoor wedding for mid-October and refused to have a contingency plan. (It turned out to be a beautiful day and we didn’t need one!)
Life's Passion
Following my husband and my dogs, I would have to say that teaching Cataloguing to graduate library school students is my greatest passion. When my enthusiasm for my life’s work sets fire to a student who thought he or she would snooze their way through a semester of cataloguing lectures, it really makes my day!
So far, I’ve turned out four full-time catalogers who didn’t even know they liked the work until they started my class. I’ve been told I put the “glamour back in cataloging” and I “managed to infuse entertainment into a subject that never seemed to have it before!” It just doesn’t get any better than that!
Earliest Childhood Memory
My grandfather was a great storyteller. On Saturday afternoons, he would wake up from his nap, take me for a ride to the Five n Dime for some toy that cost under $1.00. Then we would point the car in the direction of the penny-candy store and buy 25 cents’ worth of penny-candy which was enough to give us both a tummy-ache. Fortified with our candy, we'd head for the basement in Fall or Winter, or my backyard dollhouse in Spring or Summer for a story born in his imagination.
Where In Five Years?
Darn it all, my crystal ball is in the shop! But, actually we never know where we’ll be next month. Opportunities come our way and, mostly, we ride their wave wherever they take us.
Memberships
- American Library Association
- Special Libraries Association
- New York Law Librarians Technical Services Roundtable – founding member
- AALL national and 3 local chapters
Publications
- No Limits When You’re the Boss, 93 LAW LIBR. J. 385 (2001).
- Cataloging Internet Resources: “Don’t Worry. It’s Easier than Rocket Science,” (May 15, 1998).
- Cataloging Tips: Doin’ the Publisher Shuffle, (March 16, 1998).
- Contract Cataloging, in WHAT ELSE YOU CAN DO WITH A LIBRARY DEGREE: CAREER OPTIONS FOR THE 90’S AND BEYOND, 211-214 (1998).
- Cataloguing for Special Libraries: Administrative Perspectives, 8 LEGAL INFO. MGMT. REP. 4 (Fall 1996).
- TS Standards: Delivering Information Services in 15 MANAGING THE PRIVATE LAW LIBRARY (1995).
- WORKING WITH INDEPENDENT CONTRACTORS AND CONSULTANTS in MANAGING THE PRIVATE LAW LIBRARY (1989).