ACRL College & Research Libraries News

College & Research Libraries News

People in the News

Pam Spiegel

Sherrilynne Fuller,director of the Health Sciences Libraries at the University of Washington, has been appointed by President Clinton to the Advisory Committee on High-Performance Computing and Communications, Information Technology, and the Next Generation Internet. Fuller will join 18 other committee members who will provide guidance to the administration’s efforts to accelerate development and adoption of information technologies that will impact American prosperity in the 21st century.

Dorothy-Ellen Gross,former director of libraries and associate dean for academic support at North Park College in Chicago, has been given the Mel George Award by LIBRAS. The award honors a LIBRAS library, librarian, or other individual currently or previously involved in LIBRAS who has made a significant contribution to library service and cooperation. Gross retired from North Park in 1996. She served as president of LIBRAS in 1983-84 and 1984–85. She was also active in PALI (Private Academic Libraries of Illinois), for which she served two terms as president.

State Historical Society of Wisconsin

F. Gerald Ham

F. Gerald Hamis the winner of the 1997 Distinguished Service Award of the National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC). The award recognizes individuals whose careers have demonstrated exemplary accomplishment and extraordinary commitment in forwarding the mission of the NHPRC and individuals who have made notable accomplishments in the fields touched by the commission’s work. Ham retired in 1990 after serving for 25 years as state archivist and head of the Archives Division at the State Historical Society of Wisconsin. He also served from 1967 to 1992 as adjunct professor in the University of Wisconsin’s School of Library and Information Studies. He began his career as associate curator of West Virginia Collections at West Virginia University.

Dale Montgomery,interim associate vice-chancellor for information technology at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse, is the winner of Library Mosaic and the Council on Library Media Technician’s 1997 award for Outstanding Supporter of Support Staff. Montgomery was selected for his local and statewide efforts and commitment to the growth and development of support staff. In 1994 Montgomery opposed a plan by the state Department of Employment Relations to reclassify and compress library services assistant job classifications. He brought the impact of the plan to the attention of the Council of University of Wisconsin Libraries and to human resources offices statewide, and his efforts positively impacted the language and classification levels of the final document.

Charles T. Townley,dean of the New Mexico State University Library, has been selected Outstanding Alumnus of the University of Oklahoma School of Library and Information Studies for 1997. The award is given annually to a graduate who has a distinguished record in the field of librarianship. Townley graduated from the University of Oklahoma in 1969. He has worked in libraries at the University of California-Santa Barbara, the National Indian Education Association, Pennsylvania State University at Harrisburg, and New Mexico State University. He has served also as a lecturer at the University of Michigan School of Information Studies and as a consultant to the U.S. Departments of the Interior and Education.

Frances Goins Wilhoit,head of the Journalism Library at Indiana University (IU)-Bloomington, has been selected as the 1997 recipient of the William Evans Jenkins Award, which recognizes outstanding contributions to the IU Libraries and to the library profession. Wilhoit began her career at IU as head of the Journalism Library in 1975, and also served as curator of the Ernie Pyle papers, as acting collection development officer, and as acting personnel librarian during the early 1980s. She has updated, with Eleanor Blum, the standard reference guide in her discipline: Mass Media Bibliography: An Annotated List of Books and Journals for Research and Reference (Univ. of Illinois Press, 1990). In 1996 Wilhoit received the Eleanor Blum Distinguished Service to Research Award from the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication, which honored her as “the most highly respected communication librarian working anywhere in the world today.”

Appointments

Cornelia (Connie) E. Bakkerhas been named director of Adirondack Community College’s Learning Resources. Bakker has served for the past three and a half years at the Takoma Park campus of Montgomery College in Maryland as campus director and assistant director of the Office of Information Technology. She has also worked at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and been on the faculty of Ohio State University. She currently serves as secretary/treasurer of the Association for Educational Communications and Technology.

Susan Swords Steffenhas been appointed director of Elmhurst College’s A. C. Buehler Library. She had served for the past 12 years as head of Northwestern University’s Schaffner Library, and before that as reader services librarian at St. Xavier College. A member of ALA and the Illinois Library Association, Steffen served on the Continuing Education and Bibliographic Instruction Committees of the Illinois Association of College and Research Libraries.

Phyllis Askeyhas been named librarian for collection management special projects at Harvard University.

Julianna Claydonis now a temporary science librarian at Bowling Green State University.

Kevin Coakley-Welchhas been named public service librarian at New Hampshire College.

Michelle Collinshas joined the Hatcher Graduate Library at the University of Michigan as serials cataloger.

Melanie Cookseyhas been named cataloger/librarian at Saint Leo College in Florida.

Vickie Dollhas been appointed interim head of the East Asian Library at the University of Kansas.

Judith Emdeis now coordinator of the Anschutz Science Library at the University of Kansas.

Patricia Falkhas joined the Bowling Green State University Library as special collections cataloger.

Sharon R. Gleimhas been named extended campus services/serials librarian at Saint Leo College in Florida.

Kathy Graveshas been appointed interim coordinator of reference at the University of Kansas.

M. Elaine Hughesis now assistant department head/reference desk services coordinator at Georgia State University’s Pullen Library.

Mari Millerhas been appointed general science selector for the Main Library at the University of California-Berkeley.

Marvin E. Pollardis now project manager for California State University’s Unified Information Access System project.

Joanne Renhas been named the first coordinator for computer services and cataloging at Emerson College in Boston.

Polly Thistlethwaitehas been appointed reference/extended university programs librarian at Colorado State University, Fort Collins.

Masha Zakis now collection management project supervisor at Harvard University.

Retirements

Genevieve Wheelerretired at the end of April as director of library services at Nunez Community College in Chalmette, Louisiana. Wheeler served in that position since 1992 when Elaine P. Nunez Technical Institute and St. Bernard Parish Community College (SBPCC) merged. Before that she served as chief library administrator at SBPCC for 10 years.

Deaths

Betty Brenner,periodicals librarian at the New York City Technical College (NYTC) Library since 1982, died last fall after a long illness. Brenner had also worked at Queensborough Community College Library and as a librarian for a medical publisher. She taught in NYTC’s bibliographic instruction program and organized and developed the college’s Menu Collection, which is one of the major collections of its type in the New York Area.

Donna B. Harlan

Donna B. Harlan,a librarian at Indiana University (IU) South Bend from 1966 until her retirement in 1990, died December 25 at the age of 70. A life member of ALA for 34 years, Harlan served as deputy executive director of ACRL in 1982–83 and as interim executive secretary of RTSD in 1978. Before joining IU, she served at the University of Pittsburgh, the West Virginia Library Commission, and the Michigan State Library.

Ernest Griffith,director of the Library of Congress’ Legislative Reference Service (LRS) from 1940 to 1958, died in January at the age of 100. During Griffith’s time at LC, the LRS was greatly expanded, seeing a 300 percent increase in the number of congressional requests for information. Before joining LC, Griffith’s served as dean of the Graduate School and professor of political science at American University (AU). After leaving the library, he returned to AU as an educator and administrator, becoming the first dean of the School of International Service.

Susan McCallum Haskins,retired associate librarian for cataloging at Harvard College, died April 10 two days after her 90th birthday. Haskins spent her entire career at the Harvard College Library except for two years on leave. She joined the library in 1929 and became head cataloger, then was named associate librarian for cataloging in 1956, making her the first female officer in the library’s 320-year history. In 1948 Haskins took a leave from Harvard to organize the U.N.’s library, serving as temporary head of the Catalog Department. After retiring from Harvard in 1973, she served as director of the American Congregational Association and was chair of the Library Committee of the Congregational Library in Boston.

George Simor,retired chief acquisitions librarian in the Graduate Center Library at the City Colleges of New York (CUNY), died last July. Simor served at CUNY for more than 20 years. He also taught for 30 years in the library schools of Pratt Institute and St. Johns University, as well as CUNY. He was a member of the New York Chapter of the Art Libraries Society of North America.

C. Sumner Spalding,general editor of the first edition of Anglo-American Cataloging Rules (AACR), died in March at the age of 85. Spalding was assistant director of the Library of Congress’ Processing Department in Cataloging from 1968 until his retirement in 1975. He joined LC as a music cataloger in 1940 and subsequently served as assistant chief of the Catalog Maintenance Division and chief of the Serial Record and Descriptive Cataloging Divisions. He took a leave of absence from 1964 to 1966 to edit AACR, and received the Margaret Mann Citation for his work on that book.

L. Harry Strauss,former dean of library services at California Polytechnic State University, died last September. Strauss earned his MLS from the University of Chicago in 1942. Before joining Cal Poly, Strauss served as a superintendent of schools in Michigan.

Remembering William A. Moffett (1933–1995)

William A. Moffett

William Andrew Moffett,director of the Huntington Library in San Marino, California, died February 20 after a two-year battle with cancer. He was 62. A native of Charlotte, North Carolina, Moffett received his undergraduate degree from Davidson College, his M.A. and Ph.D. in history from Duke University, and his MLS from Simmons College. Before joining the Huntington, he served as assistant professor of history at Alma College (1964–68) and at the University of Massachusetts (1968–74), director of libraries for the State University of New York/College at Potsdam (1974–79), and the Azariah Smith Root director of libraries at Oberlin College (1979–90).

Moffett was an active member of ALA’s Committee on Intellectual Freedom, the Duke University Libraries Board of Advisors, and the UCLA Graduate School of Library and Information Sciences Advisory Committee. He was also active in ACRL, serving as its president from 1989 to 1990. The recipient of many professional honors, Moffett was named ACRL’s Academic or Research Librarian of the Year in 1993. That same year he received ALA’s Immroth Memorial Award for Intellectual Freedom, the Special Libraries Association’s Professional Librarian of 1993 Award, and an honorary doctor of laws degree from the SUNY/Potsdam. The Simmons College Graduate School of Library and Information Science gave Moffett its Alumni Achievement Award in 1994.

Moffett is probably best known, professionally, for giving access to the Huntington’s photographic archive of the Dead Sea Scrolls to qualified scholars in 1991, breaking the 40-year scholarly monopoly on Scrolls study. At the time Moffett said, “When you free the Scrolls you free the scholars. Opening access to the Dead Sea Scrolls is an affirmation of the mission of research libraries: not merely to store and preserve information, but to make it available in as free and unfettered a way as possible.” (C&RL News, April 1995)

Memorial resolution honoring William A. Moffett

WHEREASWilliam Andrew Moffett had a distinguished career in academic librarianship contributing to the development, preservation, and dissemination of information worldwide; and

WHEREAShe was always at the forefront of academic and research librarians in movements whose aims were to pursue and increase the power of library users, the most notable being providing free and open access to the photos of the Dead Sea Scrolls contained in the collections of Huntington Library; and

WHEREAShe was a widely acknowledged expert on college libraries, special collections, and library security; and

WHEREAShe served the Association of College and Research Libraries as president in 1989–90 and as chair of the College Libraries Section in 1984–85; and

WHEREAShe was awarded the highest honor the academic library profession gives, the Academic or Research Librarian of the Year Award in 1993; and

WHEREAShe was a dedicated friend, mentor, colleague, and supporter to all who loved books and ideas; and

WHEREASthere can be no doubt that his contribution to humanity and to the library profession has been extraordinary;

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVEDthat members of the Association of College and Research Libraries: Celebrate his many accomplishments and his tireless service to the library profession; Reaffirm within ourselves the principles for which he stood and for which he worked; Remember with joy his love of life and living;

Honor his memory and his continuing influence, and, be it

FURTHER RESOLVEDthat the Association of College & Research Libraries expresses its deepest sympathies to his wife Deborah, his children Pamela, Stephanie, William Andrew, and Charles, and his grandchildren. ■