Tara Laver with donor L.P.Bordelon

Tara Laver likes to tell people she gets to read other people’s letters and diaries for a living. As Curator of Manuscripts in the LSU Libraries Special Collections, that is part of her job. Whether it’s the diary of a young woman experiencing the Civil War in her Louisiana hometown, a government official writing in 1805 from Natchitoches on the then-U.S. frontier, or an LSU cadet describing college life in 1912, it’s documents like these, which tell the stories of people and their times, that hooked Laver on becoming an archivist.

Her current research project reflects this interest. Laver is editing for publication the diary of Eliza Magruder (1803-1876), an unmarried native of Maryland who moved to her aunt and uncle’s cotton plantation outside of Natchez, Mississippi, after her father died bankrupt. The diary spans 1846-1857, with some interruptions, and records the day to day life of Eliza and her aunt; their interaction with and attitudes about the slaves on the plantation; their intellectual, social, and church life; the extended familial and geographic community of which they were a part; the role Eliza played on the plantation and in the community as a caregiver; and her place in society as a dependent, unmarried woman.

As Curator of Manuscripts, Laver is responsible for acquiring new collections of historical documents or manuscripts for the Libraries’ Louisiana and Lower Mississippi Valley Collections, a research collection comprised of published and unpublished materials about Louisiana and the geographic region surrounding the lower Mississippi River. She works with families, organizations, and individuals to secure donations of collections, as well as with manuscript dealers to acquire materials through purchase. She also oversees how those materials are processed, cataloged, and preserved once they are received so that patrons can access them. In addition, Laver has responsibility for the University Archives, the records of LSU that have long-term historic or administrative value, presents orientation and instruction sessions about how to do research in Special Collections, provides reference assistance to patrons, and participates in the overall management of Special Collections as a department head. Her favorite aspects of the work are discovering new and interesting materials in the collections, meeting donors and hearing their stories, and helping undergraduates learn about and use the unique holdings in Hill Memorial Library.

A native of Sulphur, La., Laver earned a B.A. with a double major in history and broadcast journalism and an MLIS from LSU, where she also took graduate courses in American history. Her first position was as archivist at Delta State University in Cleveland, Miss. She returned to LSU in her current capacity in 2000.

Head of Circulation Elissa Plank

Although Elissa Plank has been the Head of Circulation in Middleton Library only a few short months, she hasn’t wasted time evaluating and enhancing her department’s services.  “One of my goals for my new position is to make the Circulation Department more accessible to patrons.” explains Plank.  “To that end, we’ve updated and created a new online version of the lost book form.   I am also volunteering to help Mitch Fontenot [LSU Libraries Outreach Librarian] at events where he does Outreach to make our patrons more aware of the services offered by the Circulation Department.”  Elissa enjoys the challenges of her new job and the opportunities it gives her to solve problems, and she feels fortunate to have cooperative and helpful co-workers.

The Texas native was born and raised in Nederland, near Beaumont and Port Arthur, but because both of her parents hail from central Louisiana, she often visited family near Alexandria.  Elissa says that she always felt that her roots were in Louisiana, so when she moved to Louisiana for the first time in 2001, it felt like a homecoming.  In fact, she first visited the LSU Campus as age twelve, and she reflects that, “seeing how beautiful a college campus can be made me want to go to college so that I could learn in an environment that looked like this. I never attended classes as a student, but when I was first hired here I felt that I was doing something that I had wanted to do for a long time.”  Before returning to the South, Elissa spent eighteen years in Rochester, New York, after moving there to attend graduate school at the University of Rochester.  Following her graduation, she worked for a contractor who provided document delivery services and staffing for the corporate libraries at Kodak and Xerox, and she worked as the company branch supervisor from 1996-2001.

Prior to succeeding Floris St. Amant as Head of Circulation, Elissa was the student supervisor in the Government Documents and Microforms Department, a position the prepared her well for her new station.  That position also included supervising the stacks and resolving questions regarding the circulation of government documents and microforms.

Elissa is a voracious reader, an amateur photographer, and has eclectic tastes in music.  She enjoys cooking and playing with her two cats, and she also tries to do a certain amount of volunteer work every month.

Assistant Librarian Rebecca Miller

A December 2007 graduate of the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill’s School of Information and Library Science, Assistant Librarian Rebecca Miller recently joined LSU Libraries in the newly created position of Digital Technologies/ Information Literacy Librarian. As part of the Middleton Library Reference Department, Rebecca helps staff the reference desk, teaches LIS 1001, and explores and implements digital technology into library services. Miller is also interested in researching the potential relationships among gaming, virtual worlds, and information literacy.

Since her first day at LSU in July 2008, she has participated on a statewide panel at a conference discussing the possible roles of Web 2.0 technology in library services, met with librarians throughout the state to talk about collaborative ventures, and partnered with Business Librarian Jo Ann Henson to create informative podcasts for library instruction.

“Although I always knew that I wanted to be a librarian when I ‘grew up,’” relates Miller, “my experiences as a brand-new information literacy instructor have really changed my ideas about the role of the library within the community. Reaching out to students and helping them understand information in today’s world has become my foremost consideration, and I look forward to finding new ways for Middleton to connect with students and help them build the skills they need by the time they leave LSU.”