Karen Spilman

Since April 10, 2006, Karen Spilman has been the Librarian of the Dickinson Research Center. Karen completed an internship in the Research Center in 2002 and worked as a part-time Processing Archivist/Cataloger here for 3 years. From the University of Central Oklahoma, Karen received a Bachelor of Art in History/Museum studies and from Rose State College she received an Associates Degree in Library Technical Assistant. Here, her major responsibilities include the purchasing, processing, and cataloging of library materials which include books, catalogs, serials, and other printed materials; working with vendors including those from whom we purchase materials and those who maintain our presence on OCLC; minor book repairing; answering reference inquiries and completing image request projects.

Since June of 2006, Karen was been cataloging the more than 8,000 dime novels, weeklies and pulp fictions from the Glenn D. Shirley Western Americana Collection. Her research into this genre has provided her with a better understanding of this literary form. In October 2006, Karen participated in an intense week of training in basic and advanced book repair at the Campbell Center for Historic Preservation Studies. This training bolstered her abilities to provide basic repairs to books in the Center's library collections. Her extension is 276.

Laura Anne Heller

Laura Heller joined the Donald C. & Elizabeth M. Dickinson Research Center staff as Archivist/Librarian on October 13, 2008. Her duties include cataloging of library materials which include archival collections of print, audio, visual, and photographic items; designing and implementing the virtual exhibits for the Osborn Studio; updating collection finding aids; and answering reference inquiries and image request projects.

Prior to this position, Heller served as an Archival Consultant for the Appalachian College Association (ACA), a non-profit organization for small independent colleges in Appalachia, in Berea, Kentucky; as a NHPRC-funded Project Archivist of the Council of Southern Mountains (CSM) Records at Berea College, also in Berea; as a volunteer archival assistant for the Mississippi Department of Archives and History in Jackson, Mississippi; and as an Assistant Librarian at Jackson Preparatory School, also in Jackson.

She presented her archival work on the CSM at the Appalachian Studies Association Conference. She has also submitted to the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation a report which summarizes the archival collections of the ACA’s member colleges who are interested in preserving, maintaining, and making available these collections for research purposes. She is a member of the Society of American Archivists.

Heller holds a B. A. in southern studies (southern literature) and English (creative writing) in 2000 from the University of Mississippi and a Masters in Library and Information Science (with emphasis in archives) in 2004 from the University of Southern Mississippi. Her extension is 290.