feb07b.indd


Ann Wheeler 

Building
a
library
for
the
business
of
fun


Nestled in the heart of Orlando among some 

of the world’s greatest theme parks, restaurants, 
and golf courses is the Rosen College of Hospi­
tality Management. Here undergraduate students 
enroll in unique programs like event or theme 
park management, in which they learn skills 
needed to excel in the hospitality 
industry. The college’s Universal 
Orlando Foundation Library sup­
ports these students with a steadily 
growing collection of nearly 7,000 
volumes and 130 periodical sub­
scriptions. Deb Ebster, head of the 
library, answered my questions 
about her job of a lifetime. 

Being a hospitality manage-
ment librarian is somewhat 
unique. What was your path 
to this job? 

DE: I spent most of my career 
as a community college librarian in northern 
Illinois, first in circulation, then in reference, 
and finally as coordinator of library instruction. 
I got tired of being cold, so I decided to look 
for a job in a warm place, and found a job at 
the College of the Bahamas. The major indus­
try of the Bahamas is tourism, so of course the 
curriculum reflected that, which gave me the 
experience to apply for this job. The University 
of Central Florida needed someone to head the 
library of a brand new campus devoted to the 
study of hospitality management. I thought, 
what the heck, I’ll toss my hat in the ring. I 
started in October 2003 and we opened the 
campus in January 2004. 

What makes you passionate about this 
job? 

DE: When I saw this job advertised, I knew 
it had my name on it. I am the original Food 
Network and Travel Channel junkie. I love to 

Deb Ebster 

travel. I love staying at hotels. I love eating out. 
I’m just passionate about the subject matter. 
You know, a friend once told me the secret 
to job satisfaction is that your work should be 
your play. Well, this job has so many aspects 
of play, because basically we’re in the business 

of fun. Just to give you an idea, 
when we had a career expo at 
our campus, Sea World brought 
their penguins to help recruit 
students. After I do information 
literacy sessions for the history 
of wine class, I’m invited to taste 
the wines. That’s defi nitely my 
favorite class to teach! 

Not many colleges have a 
histor y of  wine class. W hat 
sorts of  library resources sup-
port a course like that? 

DE: You’d be surprised at 
the number of wine journals out there! We 
subscribe to about eight and have acquired 
hundreds of monographs on wine, because we 
cover all the major wine­producing countries 
of the world. Our students use EbscoHost’s 
Hospitality and Tourism Complete, ABI­In­
form, and Business Source Elite quite heavily. 
Our collection is also unique because we are a 
World Tourism Organization [WTO] depository 
library. There are only four other WTO deposi­
tory libraries in the United States. We receive 
all WTO publications, which include scholarly 
research in tourism, statistics, demographics, 
and those sorts of things. 

Rosen College is the only college in 
the United States that offers a bachelor’s 

Ann Wheeler is the librarian at the Maryland Department 
of Natural Resources. Have a story idea for Job of a 
Lifetime? E-mail Ann at awheeler@dnr.state.md.us 

C&RL News February 2007  102 

mailto:awheeler@dnr.state.md.us


degree in event management. Is it a chal-
lenge  t o  d e ve l o p  a  c o l l e c t i o n  f o r  t h i s  
degree when there aren’t other schools 
to look to? 

DE: Yes, collection development is my big­
gest challenge. Right now I’m doing collection 
development for a proposed bachelor degree 
in golf and club management. Ideally I’d fi nd 
peer institutions and compare our collections, 
but in this case there are no peers. It requires 
a lot of research to do collection development 
in these emerging fi elds. 

I was sur prised to lear n that there is 
a lot of  scholarship behind tourism. Can 
you talk about some of  the research your 
l i b r a r y  h a s  h e l p e d  

Web site, but of course that’s promotional 
and marketing material. I talk about why 
they should use the databases and scholarly 
journals, and how to get information outside 
of search engines. Also I coach them on how 
to cite their sources in APA style. 

What’s it like to work with the hospi-
tality management students? 

DE: We have to be experts at customer 
service, because this industry is driven by 
customer service. Generally we don’t have 
conflicts with our students because that’s 
always in the back of their head. They’re a 
very good group to deal with. 

Is it a challenge to get your staff  up to 
speed with customer 

support? Hospitality management librarian service? 
DE: We have sev­ DE: No, becauseWhat: Rosen College of Hospitality 

eral faculty members I’ve carefully selectedManagement, University of Central 
who specialize in heri­ staff who have strong Florida 
tage tourism. There c u s t o m e r  s e r v i c eWhere: Orlando, Florida 
are several others who skills. Our original

For more information, visit: 
study the economic staff all had hospitality 

http://library.ucf.edu/rosen/ 
impact of tourism. One 
faculty member, the 
world’s leading authority in his fi eld, traces h fi ld 
the history of theme parks all the way back to 
medieval Europe. Who would have dreamed! 
But I think the most fun reference question 
I’ve had was “how much does it cost to build 
a roller coaster?” 

So how much does it cost to build a 
roller coaster? 

DE: Well, it depends. To put something 
in your back yard would cost may be $4,000 
to $5,000. But for a big state­of­the­art roller 
coaster you see at the theme parks, you’re 
looking at probably $100 million. 

Wow! No wonder tickets ar e so ex -
pensive! It sounds like Rosen College 
students have to do some challenging 
research for their classes. 

DE: Yes, the classes are very challenging. 
It’s not all just wine tasting. In the history 
of wine class, students research a particular 
chateau from a winemaking region in France, 
and then write a paper on it. This is where 
information literacy comes in. Students are 
very comfortable googling the chateau’s 

background as well as 
library background. 

Those are the people I look for. Our motto is h h l 
“kill them with kindness,” even when you’re 
telling them no. That’s the basis for good 
customer service. The other motivation for 
good customer service is the environment 
here. The college is built like a beautiful re­
sort, so when you come in, already that sets 
the tone for good customer service. 

You’ve accomplished a lot since start-
ing the Rosen College library three years 
ago. What are you most proud of ? 

DE: I get such a feeling of satisfaction 
when I see the library full of students re­
searching and writing papers, working to­
gether on group projects, chatting with staff 
at the service desk, checking out materials, 
and working with our reference librarian. 
It’s a feeling of accomplishment to know 
that I led our library team in building this 
collection, and all of these services where 
there had been nothing before but an empty 
building. To be given the chance to start a 
library from scratch is for me the opportunity 
of a lifetime. 

February 2007  103 C&RL News 

http://library.ucf.edu/rosen