Jeffrey McGill

Biography

Jeff McGill has worked in the field of mass media for more than 30 years, working in freelance photography, videography and radio before joining the WSSU Staff in 2003. As a Library Technical Assistant for Instruction in O’Kelly Library, his initial assignments involved assisting patrons at the Media Desk, assisting librarians by making photocopies of PowerPoint presentations and setting up projectors and laptops for library instruction sessions. Later, as his media skills were discovered and began to be fully utilized, he received a permanent position as Media Coordinator.

McGill became part of a team of individuals who helped to market the library, while also assisting patrons with their needs. He became an integral part of the library support staff, assuming the duties of supervising and scheduling staff for the Media Center, where educational media materials were held. As O’Kelly Library began to get more involved in media both as a promotional tool and a service for patrons, it took on its first Mass Communications interns. McGill was involved in the process from the outset and has supervised the majority of media production interns the library has had to date, serving as the liaison between the library and the Department of Communication and Media Studies.

As more instructors started to assign media-based assignments, McGill was heavily engaged in the creation, scheduling and staffing of the Media Production Lab in 2008 and has overseen its enlargement and relocation twice since that time. He has also been involved in the creation of policies and staffing for the production lab and the former Media Center until the space was repurposed in 2014. He has also been involved in the selection and acquisition of multimedia equipment used in the production lab, Information Commons and a number of the meeting rooms throughout the library. The Popular DVD Collection, which has now been downsized and relocated to Information Commons with the introduction of streaming media services, was under his supervision during its peak years of existence.

McGill has been the primary photographer/videographer for the library since his arrival in 2003 and has transitioned from traditional film to digital photography during his tenure. He has handed over much of the videography work and media instruction to James Russell and Byron Williams in the Media Production Lab, with whom he works closely.

In addition to providing photographs and videography for documentation and marketing, he is involved in the digitization of materials that were originally captured/recorded in analog media formats. He is constantly learning more about the various media software and formats and how they can be converted and utilized by the library staff as well as university faculty, staff and students. McGill is very interested in finding new ways for faculty to use media to teach and engage students, and for students to creatively use media to express themselves and showcase their knowledge of their course work. He looks forward to assisting patrons with all of their media needs.