Author of numerous published & unpublished articles and an oral history interviewer of many contemporary western artists, Rand has presented papers at conferences of the Association for Moving Imaging Archivists and the Western History Association. He holds a B. A. in anthropology (archaeology) in 1975 and an M. A. in History (Colonial History) in 1981 from the University of Maine and an M.L.S. (archives management) in 1990 from the University of Maryland. His extension is 273.

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.

Jennifer Wochner

Since February 6, 2006, Jennifer L. Wochner has been the Center's Archivist/Librarian. Born in Kansas City, Jen comes to us from Iowa City, Iowa and the University of Iowa. From this university she received a Master of Arts in Library and Information Science and a Bachelor of Music in Viola Performance. At the University of Iowa she was a research assistant in the International Writing Program Archive, a music cataloger in the main library, and for a time produced and hosted her own radio show called "Time Tracks." Additionally, she was active in the Library Science Student Organization, contributing as a web editor, working on an online video lecture project, and serving as secretary, president-Elect and president during her time as a student. Her larger responsibilities here include processing of archival collections, cataloging of audio-video items and still images, updating the Research Center portion of the web site, answering reference inquiries and completing Image Request projects. Jen occasionally edits articles for this Museum's magazines, Persimmon Hill and The Ketchpen. Her main extension is 290.