Job of a Lifetime is a bi-monthly College and Research Libraries News column which was created to inform librarians and potential librarians about innovative and unusual positions in academic and research librarianship. It includes profiles of librarians in unique placements (including the Smithsonian, and the Semester at Sea program). The library’s own Haiwang Yuan was featured in the November 2005 article.
When Yuan began, the position was brand new and the use of the Internet in libraries was taking off. He recalled, “The dean of libraries had created this new position, but I had to create what I was going to do. I had a blank ticket and at first a lot of people were doubtful. ‘What is Haiwang doing in there, twiddling his thumbs?’ I laid out how I would develop, design, and maintain the Web site of the WKU Libraries. Then I created a plan and a timeline, including what day I was going to finish what. When they found out all that was involved, the question changed to, ‘does he sleep?’â€