James McMahon...Neither Shaken nor Stirred

The name’s McMahon … James McMahon. In another life, James, who’s known to most of us at the Library as Jake (Circulation Assistant), might have been an agent for her majesty’s secret service like his movie hero James Bond. For Jake is more than just your average James Bond fan, he’s something of an authority when it comes to Agent 007. Jake has worked as an unpaid consultant on several of the recent James Bond novels written by Chicago-area writer Raymond Benson. Benson was hired in 1995 by the late Ian Fleming’s estate to continue the Bond franchise by writing new novels and screenplays. Jake first met Benson at a spy novel convention, but he knew about him previously from James Bond Internet chat rooms.

Jake is proudest of his involvement with Benson’s novel, The Man with the Red Tattoo (G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 2002), which is set in Japan. Benson writes, in the acknowledgements to the novel, “A special thank you to the Japan National Tourist Organization for its generous contributions to the making of this book, and to James McMahon for being my ‘Richard Hughes’ while in Japan.”

Benson knew of Jake’s interest in Japan, and of his knowledge of the Japanese language, so he invited Jake to accompany him on a three week all-expenses paid trip to Japan to help him research his novel. While Jake and Benson were in Japan, Jake served as Benson’s translator and cultural advisor. Together they scouted out locations where scenes in the novel would take place, dinned at the finest restaurants, and got to meet many local celebrities.

Jake learned to speak Japanese by auditing classes at Northwestern for years during his lunch hours. But Jake is quite modest about his Japanese language skills and says he really only knows just enough to sometimes get himself into trouble. Jake has always considered himself to be rather shy but when in Japan he’s absolutely fearless about trying out his Japanese on everyone he meets. “I apparently have a good accent so what I know how to say, I say well,” Jake explained, “Some people think then that I really know how to speak Japanese … and then I’m in trouble.” Jake has gotten out of many tricky linguistic difficulties by reciting a brief prepared statement, in Japanese, that explains how little Japanese he actually knows and that he’s still a student of the language. Jake says he’s found that people really appreciate hearing his explanation, not just because it’s the truth, but also because humility is a very Japanese trait. Jake kept a detailed diary of his trip that you can read on the James Bond web site that he maintains with several friends. You’ll find Jake’s illustrated diary of his trip to Japan at www.hmss.com/japan.

As a former U.S. Army reservist assigned to the Special Forces unit, Jake has had a fair amount of military training and it shows in his near perfect posture and general overall demeanor. He has taken a couple of military leaves of absences from his job at NU, first to go to boot camp and later to attend other advanced Army training.

The next thing you’ll notice right away about Jake is his melodious speaking voice. He has an announcer-quality voice that earned him the job as the “official voice” of the library on our public address/fire alarm system. It’s Jake’s voice that you hear announcing, in no uncertain terms, that the library building is CLOSED. Even in casual conversation Jake is extremely articulate. His words are always carefully chosen and it’s important to him to be precise and to use just the right word or phrase. Often when I’m talking with Jake I’m reminded of his mother, Marion, who was the head of copy cataloging at the NU Library in the late 70’s when I first started working full-time at the library. Jake inherited his Mom’s sense of humor and her precision with language. Jake will often slip in a joke in the midst of conversation that can really take you by surprise because he’s the perfect comedic straight man and will rarely break character or crack a smile during the delivery of his joke.

A taste for international travel was instilled in Jake at a young age. He first visited Japan when he was a young boy living in Hong Kong with his parents. Jake’s Dad was a marketing executive for several U.S. companies that did business abroad. Jake’s Dad, also named James, enjoyed working abroad and actively sought out foreign assignments. Jake was born in Mexico during one of his father’s assignments just outside of Mexico City, where his family lived until Jake was seven years old. After a brief two year stint back in the U.S. the McMahon family next moved to Hong Kong where Jake’s Dad was head of the buying office for the Far East Region of retailer Montgomery Ward. At the conclusion of his Dad’s assignment in Hong Kong the McMahon family was slated to move to Japan but Jake’s parents decided it was time to return to the U.S. for the sake of their three kids. The McMahon family moved to Wilmette where Jake attended and graduated from New Trier East High school.

Jake is celebrating his 25th anniversary at the University Library, but his connection to Northwestern started several years earlier than that. On his mother’s advice Jake applied for and got his first student job (shelving books) at the library in 1972. He was still a sophomore at New Trier East. During his college years at Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa, where Jake majored in graphic design, he was able to earn extra money for school by working at the Northwestern library during breaks. Because Drake was on the semester system and NU is on the quarter system, Jake’s college breaks coincided very nicely with the times the Northwestern library was most in need of extra help. Jake would just stop in and see the late Eleanor Pederson, who was Jake’s supervisor for many of the years he’s worked at the Library, and she’d load him up with hours. Eleanor was grateful to get all her hard to fill hours covered, while Jake was just happy to earn the extra cash. Sometimes Jake worked up to 70 hours a week during reading and exam week, until the personnel office finally cracked down on him for working so many overtime hours per week.

To many of Circulation Services’ customers Jake is the face of the department. The rest of his department has their desks behind the scenes in a private back office area. But Jake’s desk is out front, right in the middle of the action … and he wouldn’t have it any other way. I asked Jake to share some of his coping strategies when dealing with difficult customers. “I used to take it personally that they were attacking me, or my institution, my family,” Jake explained. “I’d get indignant or defensive. But then I realized they don’t know me. This isn’t personal. They usually just want to blow off steam. They want somebody to listen, so be a good listener, let them tell their story. If you keep your voice level and you stay friendly, once they have gotten it all off their shoulders they are usually in a much better mood to discuss ([the problem) reasonably.”

One amusing Northwestern story that Jake recalled during our interview is actually about Rolf Ericksen, the head of the Circulation Department for many years until his death in 1992. An NU faculty member approached the circulation desk and asked the student on duty to check on the status of a book that he needed for his research. When the faculty member was told that the book had been charged out to a study carrel for the past five years and he’d have to wait another two weeks for the book to be recalled, the faculty member just went nuts. He totally blew up at the student worker and said, “That’s outrageous! That’s unconscionable! I demand that you let me check out the book immediately, and furthermore I want this person’s carrel privileges revoked!” The poor undergraduate was totally ill equipped to deal with the wrath of a tenured faculty member under a full head of steam, so he went to get Rolf for help. Always the diplomat, Rolf very calmly approached the desk to see how he might be of assistance. After just a few minutes he had determined that the book in question was actually charged out to that faculty member’s own study carrel. After telling the faculty member what he’d discovered, Rolf totally dead panned it and without missing a beat said, “Since you’ll obviously be giving up your study carrel, would you like us to clear out the books? Or will you empty the carrel for us?” You’ve never seen such furious backpedaling as the faculty member totally shifted gears and tried to justify his behavior. At no time did the faculty member admit he was wrong or apologize for causing an unnecessary disturbance. In the end the faculty member got to keep his carrel, but Rolf kept him dancing around for a little while.

Vince McCoy
Technical Support Consultant
Library Information Technology Support Services

(Photo by Mary Bradley)