John Kimbrough

Apologies for the dust and staleness: I don't spend much time here.

Are you sure you have the right John Kimbrough? There's a lot of us, you know--see the Name section below.

Work

The Joseph Regenstein Library, at the University of Chicago, where I am an assistant to the Library Director. Officially, Regenstein serves the faculty and graduate students in the Humanities, Social Sciences, Divinity School, and GSB. Unofficially, everyone comes to the Reg.

Prior to being at Regenstein, I worked at The John Crerar Library, the medical and general science library, as the circulation troglodyte, aka evening and weekend supervisor. I have been working at either the Reg or Crerar since fall 1995, when I needed a campus job as a third-year undergraduate.

I'm currently enrolled in a masters' program in library science, taking classes part-time over the Internet.

Random work-related links:

• LC MARC formats More than you ever wanted to know about MARC metadata.
• The master page for the LC classification.
• NLM List of Serials Indexed for Online Users (LSIOU) to look up strange journal abbreviations.
• RefDesk
• 720 ILCS 5/16 Illinois law and library theft.
• Federal Depository Library Access (Title 44 U.S.C. Sec. 1911)
• Access Services Symposium at Columbia University, 2001.

Play

Ex Libris
Crerar and the Reg nourish my mind. Ex Libris, the coffee shop in the basement of the Reg, takes care of the rest. Somehow I graduated from "loyal customer" to "volunteer staff" and then, after someone mentioned the magic phrase "free coffee," decided updating Lauren's website would be a good use of my time.

InterVarsity Christian Fellowship (IVCF)
When I was a student, I was an active member of IVCF, a Christian student group. I still try to attend as many meetings as I can. (I should probably be going to Graduate Christian Fellowship now, but I still have friends among the undergrads.) Asian American Students for Christ is our sister chapter.

Names

John Kimbrough I ("the Colonist") was the first Kimbrough to emigrate from England to the New World. I'm named for him. So are many other Kimbroughs, most much more famous than me.

• waltmink.com Home to John Kimbrough, frontman and songwriter for the band Walt Mink. He's been doing some composing for films recently. If you're a This American Life fan (like my roommate Greg), you might hear his work occasionally.
• "Jarrin' John Kimbrough, from Haskell" was a fullback and integral part of the Texas A&M 1939 national championship team. He was runner-up for the Heisman in 1941, played pro football and even acted in two Westerns.
• Thankfully, not all Kimbroughs look like me. Check out John Kimbrough, a model. I hope I look as good when I'm his age.
• Over in Orange, Texas, John Kimbrough is the district attorney for Orange County.
• John Kimbrough is also the head of AVL India Software for AVL List GmbH (scroll down).
• Then there's John Kimbrough, a medical resident and researcher at Vanderbilt. Wow, he's even in internal medicine like my dad.
• Lawrence Kimbrough isn't a John, but we share both a last name and a love for the saints.
• Kimbrough genealogy has spawned a lot of web pages. I can't really figure out where I fit, however: my branch of the Kimbrough family hails from eastern Tennessee (Madisonville), and we don't seem to be on the lists. Someday I'll figure this out.

Up on the north side of Chicago, I'm known as Brad's brother. In Lubbock, Texas, I am Bob and Susan's son. Everywhere else I'm "that guy who works in the library."