7 Questions with Access Services guru, Justin McGill
All Libraries Posted: January 27th, 2025Meet Justin McGill, a longtime member of the UCF Libraries team and a dedicated advocate for supporting campus resources. Starting his journey as a student assistant, Justin has grown within the organization to become the Stacks Unit Supervisor, a role he has held since December 2023. A proud UCF graduate, Justin earned his master’s degree in music in May 2024, combining his academic achievements with his passion for the arts. Outside of his professional responsibilities, he lends his vocal talents to a small choir, further highlighting his love for music. Let’s dive into Justin’s journey and the invaluable contributions he makes to UCF Libraries.
Tell us about your background and how you got to UCF.
I started at UCF Libraries as a student assistant in 2013, working for ILL (now DDRS). (My bachelor’s degree is in Spanish.) That team was responsible for picking books from the open stacks to fill Ill requests. I also supervised a team of students that worked on identifying duplicate monographs to send to the FLARE library in Gainesville. I started full time as an LTA in Circulation in 2015. I handled semester and daily schedules for a large student team. We have had a number of amazing projects in that time. Right when I started, we were shifting the collection to make room for what is now the 5th floor study area. In 2018, the Automated Retrieval Center opened. The Stacks unit hired over 30 students that academic year to work on ingesting 200,000 plus items from the 1st , 3rd, and 4th floors. followed by another ingest in 2021 for the rest of the 3rd floor which was complicated by the need to maintain rules about personal space. At this time our activities had shifted to being the main team operating the ARC, handling item requests, storing and maintaining containers. After my predecessor moved with her family to New Mexico, I became the Stacks unit supervisor in December 2023.
What are 3 key things you want people to know about you about your position here at UCF?
The main goals of the Stacks unit are to make sure that patrons have convenient access to our physical collections and physical spaces. We are a part of the Access Services department, which is responsible for opening and closing the building and staffing the service desk 103 hours per week during Fall and Spring semesters. Our goals are to help guide students to library resources, both physical and virtual, and to answer questions related to UCF in general. We also currently are the location to pay fines, and we house the physical reserves collection for course items, including anatomy models.
What are some personal hobbies and things you like to do outside of work? I heard that you are in the choir at Rollins, could you talk about that a bit?
I am involved with choral music and singing, including in the Orlando Sings Symphonic Choir as well as other groups. In May 2024 I received my MA in Music from UCF. My final project was an exploration of contrasting choral settings of texts, that called on my music history, theory, and conducting study. I recruited a small choir and conducted them as part of a lecture and recital, which I am very proud of. In 2025, I plan to put together a regular chamber choir to focus on small ensemble works from a variety of historical eras.
How has your role here at the UCF Libraries been different than your previous jobs?
Before being full-time here, I worked in retail, which gave me a background in trying to identify customer needs and offering solutions. In retail, that means selling them more items or more services; what I love about libraries is that the things we offer are already included by being a library patron.
Do you enjoy working on a university campus with the bustling environment of students?
I really enjoy being part of a large and collaborative team, and that includes our student assistants, who often have great ideas about how to make our work better. We make it a point to have various staff appreciations throughout the year, which has become a department tradition.
What does a typical day look like for you?
I can say a typical week for me includes meetings coordinating activities with the Stacks LTA team and having one-on-ones with them. I have at least one hour, usually two, per day, supervising student activities in the ARC, which includes picks, physical inventories (audits), ongoing weeding, and container maintenance. I maintain responsibility for student semester schedules. I also set up the various methods for new and ongoing tasks in collaboration with the team. I also like to have 1-2 hours per week on the Circulation desk. The LTS team for Access Services, which includes myself, Seth Dwyer, and Glen Samuels, meets biweekly and as needed. In addition, I meet with Libraries teams regarding ongoing weeding /deaccessioning and furniture, among other things.
What motivates you to do your best work every day?
I am constantly impressed by the kindness, creativity, capability and dedication of my coworkers. I am excited by the team spirit we are building in our department.
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