People in the News

David Free

Emily Hurst, deputy director and head of the Research and Education Department at the Virginia Commonwealth University Health Sciences Library, received the Estelle Brodman Award for the Academic Health Sciences Librarian of the Year from the Medical Library Association (MLA). One of MLA’s most significant awards, the Brodman Award recognizes a mid-career academic health sciences librarian who demonstrates significant achievement, the potential for leadership, and continuing excellence.

Emily Hurst

Jennie Levine Knies, associate dean for Commonwealth Campus Libraries and head librarian for the Scranton Campus Library at Penn State-Scranton, has received the Distinguished Service Award from the Mid-Atlantic Regional Archives Conference (MARAC). MARAC is a nonprofit, volunteer-run association of archivists and cultural heritage professionals throughout the mid-Atlantic region whose work is centered on the administration, preservation, and use of archival records and related historical research materials.

Appointments

John Bence has been named university archivist at the University of Pennsylvania Libraries, effective August 1, 2023. In this role, Bence will oversee all operations of the University Archives and Records Center (UARC), including its outreach initiatives and fundraising program. As the chief administrator responsible for UARC’s program to collect, manage, preserve, and make accessible materials of operational and historical value, he will lead a team that serves the Penn community; scholars interested in the history of the university, institutions of higher learning in the United States, and American intellectual life; and the Philadelphia community.

John Bence

Karen Bjork recently joined the Virginia Commonwealth University Libraries as head of digital libraries and publishing.

Chrystal Carpenter has joined the Virginia Commonwealth University Libraries as head of special collections and archives.

Carolann Curry is now outreach and data coordinator for the Network of the National Library of Medicine, Region 5, at the University of Washington Libraries.

Loftan Hooker is now head of access services at the Virginia Commonwealth University Libraries.

Brianna McGruder has been appointed community-driven archives program manager at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill.

Rolando Rodriguez is now humanities data librarian at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill.

Retirement

Larry Schwartz, assistant professor and chair of the library department at Minnesota State University-Moorhead, has retired after 23 years of service and 30 total years of being an academic librarian. Schwartz received his MSLS from Clarion University of Pennsylvania, now Pennsylvania Western University.

Deaths

William E. McGrath Jr., retired professor of library and information science at the State University of New York (SUNY) at Buffalo, has died. Prior to joining SUNY-Buffalo, McGrath served as science librarian at the University of New Hampshire, director of libraries at the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology, and dean of libraries at the University of Massachusetts-Lowell, among other positions.

Patricia A. “Pat” Wand has died. From the beginning of her professional service, Wand shaped the future of ACRL, helping found the division’s Instruction Section in 1977 and chairing the Anthropology and Sociology Section from 1982 to 1983. Her leadership continued through the decades, including serving on the ACRL Board of Directors, as ACRL Councilor to ALA Council, as president of the ACRL Oregon Chapter, and as chair of the ACRL Budget and Finance and International Relations Committees. Her support of ACRL continues as she became an ALA Legacy Society Member by making a bequest to ACRL for continued international initiatives.

Within ALA, Wand held numerous leadership positions, including chairing the Budget Analysis and Review Committee along with the Committee on Legislation, serving as an Endowment Trustee, and later the Senior Endowment Trustee, during which time the ALA endowment grew in value from $45.6 million to $64.3 million. She was additionally a member of many ALA committees and roundtables. A staunch advocate for libraries, Wand represented ALA and four other national library associations in testifying three times before US House Subcommittee on Legislative Appropriations to support budgets for the Library of Congress and the Superintendent of Documents.