Employee Spotlight: Donna Bergholz

When Donna Bergholz began work at Duke in 1958, she didn't expect to be here 48 years later. But she has stayed past the time many employees retire.

"I'm still having fun," she said. "The people I work with are smart and good-humored and value what I do."

Bergholz unravels mysteries and solves puzzles. She isn't a scientist or detective; she's a librarian, a serials cataloger. She is head of a group of library employees skilled in creating coherent, descriptive records for the tens of thousands of serials – journals, magazines, newspapers and ongoing publications of learned societies – in the collections of the Duke Libraries.

Earlier this year, Bergholz was honored by the Libraries for her work. She received the Florence Blakely Award, which is presented annually to a library employee who is innovative, benefits the Duke community, effectively promotes access to information and contributes to saving time and/or money. The award is named for Florence Blakely, a 38-year Duke librarian who received national recognition for her outstanding service.

In nominating Bergholz for the award, a colleague wrote, "We have a little saying in the Cataloging Department: No one is indispensable, but some people are irreplaceable. Donna is certainly irreplaceable. Through multiple reorganizations, data migrations and physical moves, she has maintained a fresh perspective and sense of humor."

One of the challenges of Bergholz's work is distinguishing publications with titles such as "the Times," a common newspaper name. The 3,000 to 5,000 records Bergholz and her colleagues enter annually into the Duke Libraries' online catalog make it possible for users to find out whether or not the particular "Times" they are looking for is owned by the Libraries.

"The Libraries' resources are as good as lost if we don't do our work right," she said.

When Bergholz started at Duke, the library had a card catalog. Bergholz recalled typing entries on cards without an easy way of correcting mistakes. She has embraced the sophisticated online bibliographic databases she now uses to track information and generate records. Duke's current reclassification of its collections from the Dewey Decimal system to Library of Congress classification has only become feasible in the current online environment.

Duke presidents and university librarians have come and gone during Bergholz's tenure, and she has worked through two library building projects.

When she does retire, it will be to her home and garden in Chapel Hill with her two cats. "I call them my ‘serial' cats,' " she joked. "They don't get along, so I can only be with one of them at a time."