LSU Libraries is pleased to welcome Mike Waugh as our new Systems Librarian.

Mike comes to us with ten years of experience at the East Baton Rouge Parish Library (EBRPL), where he did a little of everything: starting as a part-time moonlighter, then as a Library Technician. After receiving his Master’s in Library and Information Science (MLIS) at LSU, he worked as a Children’s Librarian at the downtown library (River Center), sometimes taking his guitar to work and singing a few children's songs before storytime. He also worked in circulation, reference, and finally in Computer Services, where he held a variety of positions such a technology instructor, webmaster, head of Computer Services, and then as a systems librarian.

While at EBRPL, Mike was the system administrator when the library moved to a new integrated library system, the first upgrade of the library's system over twenty years. It was a big project, with over 1.4 million items, thirteen locations and more than four hundred staff accounts to create. There were some growing pains, Mike reports, but overall the project was a success.

Mike is excited to transfer his expertise to his work at LSU, working in an environment where he says he will have "access to the vast breadth and depth of knowledge possessed by my colleagues at the LSU Libraries and the LOUIS network."

Of his goals, Mike writes that he would like to see our systems become easier to use for students, faculty and staff, and that he would like our material to be easier to find and obtain. Part of that will mean that the different software systems and databases at LSU Libraries will be able to more seamlessly interact.

Mike is a member of the Chitimacha Tribe of Louisiana and spent most of his childhood on the Chitimacha Indian Reservation in Charenton, Louisiana. He attended the Louisiana School for Math, Science and the Arts, and his undergraduate degree is from LSU. Having lived in the area for fifteen years, and rooting for the Tigers the whole time, Mike definitely has an affinity for LSU. The opportunity to work at an organization with the prestige of LSU was just too good to pass up, he says.

Outside of work, Mike plays competitive Scrabble, and directs the Baton Rouge Scrabble Club, practicing by anagramming words and trying to memorize the entire dictionary. He also plays guitar and sings songs, and is an avid horse racing fan and handicapper, and has visited horse farms across the country and prestigious racetracks such as Saratoga in New York, Churchill Downs and Keeneland in Kentucky, Santa Anita in California and, of course, Fairgrounds in New Orleans.

Welcome to LSU, Mike!