Libraries

Interview with Chuck Malone

Photo of Chuck Malone
Chuck Malone
Title: Professor
Department: Libraries
Office Location: Malpass Library
Office Phone: 309/298-2719
Email: C-Malone@wiu.edu

Do you specialize in any areas?

Government agencies and the information they disseminate; statutory, regulatory and case law; patents and trademarks.

What is your favorite thing to research?

Patents and trademarks. And whatever information a library user is looking for. Helping a library user often sparks my interest in the subject the user is researching.

Tell about a time when you were able to help a patron that really sticks with you.

When I was working as a government information librarian at Poplar Creek Public Library, I got to talking to an elderly man who had come in for a tax from. I was telling him about the various types of government publications we had. After I mentioned military histories, he stopped me and asked if we had anything on the Korean War. He was interested in a particular battle. We had several good books on the Korean War, and the battle he was looking for showed up in the index of a couple of the books. He then took them over to a table and began reading them. After a while I noticed that he had begun crying. I went over and asked him if he was okay.

He said that he and his unit had fought in that particular battle in the Korean War for three days. He lost most of his buddies in that battle. He said that they never were given any information on why the battle took place, or its importance. One day they were told to take a hill. They spend three days taking that hill. Then once they had taken it, they were told to move out. He said that until reading about that battle in these books today, he had never had any information on how that battle had fit into the larger scheme of the War. But now he knew. He said he was going to photocopy those chapters from the books and send them to the few remaining living members of his unit. He was so appreciative that I had helped him find information about the battle he had fought in and lost most of his buddies in.

How can patrons get ahold of you?

email is the best way: c-malone@wiu.edu, phone: 298-2719

What do you geek out over?

St. Louis Cardinals baseball; the Grateful Dead; rock music from the late 60s/early 70s; blues, jazz, Celtic and bluegrass music; detective, private eye and spy fiction.


Back to Librarians page