Meet the people who stand behind your subscription
With thousands of institutions worldwide subscribing to ACS publications, it's hard for our sales and customer services teams to get to know every librarian in their territories. Who are the people behind all those e-mails and phone calls? In an ongoing feature, LiveWire will offer a glimpse at the folks who make our subscription services run.
This month: Doug Storm and Meredith Hamilton
DOUG STORM Through December 2007, Doug managed all accounts in the mid-western US. In January 2008, he took over responsibility for all academic accounts in the US and Canada, as the Sales Department was re-organized to work more closely with customers in specific areas and we implemented our new pricing model.
Where did you grow up?
I was born in Carbondale, Illinois and lived there until I was about four. Those were the salad days of "Big Wheels". We moved then to where my dad was raised, Lakewood, Illinois, which is about 13 miles from Shelbyville, where I went to school. Lakewood is where I grew up and where I lived. It used to have a post office and general store and when my dad was a boy, it even had a school (one room!)—now, it only has a church and a speed limit. After high school I went to Washington University in St. Louis where I proved that you could simply read novels and talk about them to get a highly respected degree. Then I went on to get a Master's in teaching which was applicable to my life for about 2 years as I went right from that program into a job teaching freshmen and sophomore students at The Christian Brothers High School in Clayton, Missouri (it has since moved, expanded itself westward). That phase ended (made a decision to move to Chicago that lasted about 5 weeks—don't ask!) and I floundered in bookstoreclerkland and discovered many like-minded floundering men and women with barely used Master's degrees. Ah, COMMUNITY! But then life presented me with another option—and a publications rep was born! From ITP to EBSCO to Bowker to...The ACS! That fateful day, May 8th, 2000...my diary entry is surprisingly blank.
What's the last book you read? What book are you reading now? What's the last movie you saw? What's your favorite book/movie/tv program/painting/record-cd? Favorite author/musical artist/recording artist? Hobbies?
I've been reading aloud to my boys at night—we just finished book three of "The Ranger's Apprentice" by John Flanagan. I recommend them—I couldn't wait for bed time—wanting the fellas to get there earlier every night so I'd have time to read more! This last book, "The Icebound Land" found our hero, the ranger's apprentice, subjected to slavery in a foreign land where he becomes addicted to a drug called "warmweed". This, believe it or not, proved an ideal springboard to a very frank discussion with my eight-year-old son who of course went right to the heart of what's difficult about these discussions: isn't smoking a drug? (No, I don't smoke, but his grandpa does.) And beer and wine? (Yes, I do have a beer on occasion.) Interesting times ahead! His brother (6 years) is normally asleep when we have these deep discussions.
As for books directed more at those over 8, I've recently read several books by David Markson: "Reader's Block", "This is Not a Novel", "Vanishing Point", "The Last Novel". These deal with the "author's" senescence and are written not as standard novels but rather as authorial comments on philosophy and literature that have been written on note cards and that he is now trying to organize into a whole. This may not sound like much, but these books are surprisingly addictive (though, not like "warmweed" or cigarettes). I just started reading "The Haunted Woman" by David Lindsay, a Scottish author best known, if known at all, for "The Voyage to Arcturus". I'm not sure why I chose it—purely a diversionary tactic as I had set myself a "pledge" to only read from these three titles—The Interpretation of Dreams, On the Origin of Species, and the Essays of Montaigne. Please don’t ask. As for a favorite author or book—that's a little tough, but I'll try via categories.
Fiction: Philip Roth is probably an author I trust most—my favorites of his are "My Life as a Man" and "Sabbath's Theater". I've enjoyed John Crowley's "Aegypt" books quite a bit.
Poetry: Mark Strand and Nicholas Christopher are my "friends" (ie, I don't struggle to understand them) and I've not really delved into much else in terms of multiple works. I've liked poems by other "giants"—but not much holds my attention.
Didactic: This is probably a genre that I read the most—I guess I like to be told what to do and think! Favorites included: Borges' "Seven Nights"; Harold Bloom's "The Ringers in the Tower"; W.H. Auden's "The Dyer's Hand"; Adam Phillips' "Darwin's Worms". I read essays because they fulfill my sense of needing to read to "completion" without wanting to commit to a whole book or fictional world. This psychological need does not seem to follow when it comes to fiction as I tend to have no patience for short stories.
Movies: at the theater "Atonement"; at home, "Gone Baby Gone". The best movie I've seen in the last year or so would have to be "Pan's Labyrinth". I can't say I have a favorite movie though like every guy I know I would happily watch "The Shawshank Redemption" every day. I do have a soft spot for "About a Boy" with Hugh Grant.
Music: The Cloud Cult; Ryan Adams (with The Cardinals); The Jayhawks; Rilo Kiley; The Thermals; Neko Case; Turtle Island String Quartet.
I can't say that I have any hobbies unless buying books by the pound and not reading them counts. I also have been trying to "green" our house—adding insulation (recycled cotton), replacing a gas water heater with an electric tankless, buying house plants to clean the air, etc. Wind power is next (but on a smaller scale—ask me about it!).
What are some of the challenges you face in your work?
Work challenges for me are any that our partners and customers face; in other words, I want to do what I can to help our customers meet their own challenges be they budgetary or content-based.
The introduction of our new Value-Based Pricing has really helped me learn more about each of the university accounts with which I work. Through the examination of Carnegie Classifications, FTE and usage patterns I've begun to understand more about the schools and their needs. This pricing model, while being one of the "challenges" we've faced here, has really done more for me in terms of opening up new ways to discuss our journals with librarians and chemists. Any time you can add new avenues of communication into the process you create more opportunities for growth and empathy within the relationship. And this aspect, the give and take that comes of understanding the needs of each library or consortium or single user, is what I enjoy most about my work at ACS.
Doug can be reached by e-mail at d_storm@acs.org, and by phone at (202) 445-5258.
Meredith Hamilton and Ripley
MEREDITH HAMILTON Meredith has worked with our customers in the western US for many years, and continues to handle both academic and non-academic accounts for our Customer Service team.
Where are you from/where did you grow up? I’m a Columbus native.
When did you join ACS, and what jobs did you have before that? My first job was as a library page. I followed that up by working for an agronomist during college. That job was mostly lab work, but I spent one day a week in the library searching databases and transcribing abstracts. This was in the 1980s, so think DOS commands and miles of green text on the screen of an Apple II. Arriving at ACS in 2003, it was a revelation to me to see how much simpler it is for researchers to keep up with the latest work being done in their fields.
What book are you reading now? What are some of your hobbies?
I’ve been a devourer of books all my life, but my reading habits have changed immensely as I’ve adopted a dog and learned to knit. I do sneak in some time with books; lately I've been reading “Merle’s Door: Lessons from a Freethinking Dog” by Ted Kerasote and a novel soon to be published called “Nice to Come Home To” by Rebecca Flowers. The latter is a shameless plug, as the author is a friend, but it’s a lovely and funny book.
My dog Ripley and I are training in the sport of canine agility. It's the most challenging thing I’ve ever done; I’m often ready to throw in the towel, but I’ll catch Ripley's eye as he’s coming through a tunnel or barreling over a jump, see the joy on his face, and that's motivation to take another class or go to another practice. We'll keep going as long as we're having fun, but don’t look for us to show up on Animal Planet any time soon.
What are some of the challenges you face in your work? What do you enjoy most? I spend too much time trying to find and retrieve email messages. How I wish there were something like a Dewey Decimal System in place for organizing email, and a program that filed it automatically. The best parts of my day come when I feel as if I’ve helped lift the burden from someone’s shoulders. Most people dread calling or writing customer service to report a problem. I want everyone who contacts us to be glad they did so.
Meredith can be reached by e-mail at mhamilton@cas.org, and by phone at 614-447-3600 ext. 2727 or 1-888-338-0012.
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