Staff Spotlight: Rachel Clark

Making history accessible is how Rachel Clark describes her job at UTA Libraries. Rachel joined the Special Collections Department staff in November as one of its newest metadata librarians. 

 

Before coming to UTA Libraries, Rachel did similar work on a contract with National Geographic, where she cataloged their digital photographs. As part of this project, she described each photograph in the catalog so that editors, researchers and others could find them easily when conducting a search. 

“I catalog Special Collections materials so that they are accessible for anyone that might want to search for them,” Rachel said. “We are working on celestial charts right now, which is going to be really fun and interesting this year. With the eclipse taking place in April and in the fall, we have an exhibit. So, I am trying to get those cataloged right now.” 

Rachel shared that she learned about the importance of history from her grandparents growing up. 

My grandparents had the largest privately owned Texas Library in the state at their house. So, history has always been very important to me,” she said. “I don’t know where they got the designation specifically, but it was something that they liked to tell people about.” 

Working in Special Collections, Rachel shared that you never know what pieces of history you are going to find on a shelf, inside a drawer, or in a cabinet. Each item, large or small, has a story to tell. 

She added that at times you feel like Indiana Jones as you do this type of work to preserve history for the future. 

Rachel has taken up crocheting outside the office and is looking to learn knitting. 

“Crocheting is relaxing, and it was something that I could do because my husband does archery where he goes and competes. When he is at competitions in between times of him target shooting, I can do this,” she said. “The most complicated item I made was a doily pumpkin, sort of a 3D pumpkin that was stuffed with glittery tulle and lights. The largest blanket I made for my brother was a full-sized blanket that took a year to make.” 

Rachel thanked everyone for the warm welcome and the support she received since joining the library staff. 

We are happy to have you on our team at UTA Libraries, Rachel. Your attention to detail and the value you place on history will help our patrons for years to come as they research topics that are important to them. Welcome to the library.