Appointments

Laurie Alexander has accepted a permanent appointment as director, Undergraduate Library, and head of Graduate Library Research and Education Services at the University of Michigan’s University Library.

Roberta I. Shaffer has been appointed law librarian of Congress. In 1980, she was appointed director of the University of Houston Law Center’s Legal Communications Program and associate director of the center’s Law and Technology Program. In 1984, she became the first person appointed to the position of special assistant to the law librarian in the Library of Congress. In 1987, Shaffer was named a Fulbright Senior Research Scholar at the Tel Aviv University Faculty of Law in Israel. Upon her return to the United States, she served for a year as director of the law library at the George Washington University National Law Center Library during the director’s sabbatical. From 1990 until 1999, she served concurrently as adjunct coordinator of the law librarianship specialization at the School of Library and Information Science at Catholic University of America and as director of research services at the law firm of Covington and Burling in Washington, D.C. In 1999, she was appointed and served for two years as dean and professor at the Graduate School of Library and Information Science at the University of Texas-Austin. After working briefly with the Special Libraries Association and as a consultant, in 2002 she accepted the position of director of external relations and program development and professor at the College of Information Studies at the University of Maryland-College Park. Shaffer returned to the Library of Congress in 2005 as executive director of the Federal Library and Information Center Committee/Federal Library Network. A past officer of the International Association of Law Libraries, Shaffer is currently serving as the chair of the Information Policy Committee of the International Council for Scientific and Technical Information.

Shane Beers joined the University of Michigan’s Department of Preservation and Conservation as the library’s first digital preservation librarian.

Melissa Bowles-Terry has been appointed instruction and assessment coordinator for the University of Wyoming Libraries in Laramie.

Judith Carter has been appointed head of technical services at Marquette University Libraries in Milwaukee.

Daniel Chamberlain has joined Occidental College’s Center for Digital Learning and Research as a CLIR Postdoctoral Fellow in Academic Libraries.

Sharon Comstock has been named Illinois State University’s program director for the Post-Baccalaureate Certificate Program in School Librarianship.

Sarah Dick has joined Illinois State University as marketing and special projects librarian.

Gabriel Duque has accepted the position of learning librarian at the University of Michigan.

Khue D. Duong has begun a tenure-track appointment as science librarian at California State University-Long Beach.

Melanie Griffin was hired as an assistant librarian in Digital Collections at the University of South Florida.

Ross Griffiths joined the staff at Illinois State University as preservation librarian.

Emily Hamstra has been named learning librarian at the University of Michigan.

Sara Henry has accepted the new engineering librarian position in the Art, Architecture, and Engineering Library at the University of Michigan.

Randy Hensley has been appointed professor and head of instruction of the Newman Library at Baruch College-CUNY.

Rebecca Webber Hill has accepted a term position as science librarian in the Shapiro Science Library at the University of Michigan.

Maurice Hobson has been appointed to a one-year position as W. E. B. Du Boise postdoctoral associate at the University of Massachusetts Amerherst Libraries.

Andrew Huot has been appointed conservator at Illinois State University.

Chad Kahl is now the social sciences online resource specialist at Illinois State University.

Demian Katz has been appointed library technology development specialist at Villanova University’s Falvey Memorial Library in Villanova, Pennsylvania.

Barbara Lewis was promoted to assistant librarian at the University of South Florida.

Ye Li has accepted the position of chemistry librarian in the Shapiro Science Library at the University of Michigan.

Roshin Mathew has joined Mary Norton Clapp Library at Occidental College as librarian for the first year experience.

Molly Susan Mathias is now the learning commons coordinator of the Daniel M. Soref Learning Commons at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

Bill McMillin has been appointed reference/instruction librarian at Illinois State University.

Tamara Meredith is now head of the Learning Resources Center for the University of Wyoming Libraries in Laramie, Wyoming.

Carla Montori is now head of preservation at the University of Maryland.

Angie Oehrli is now learning librarian at the University of Michigan.

Bria Parker has accepted a newly created audio digitization specialist in the Digital Conversion Unit at the University of Michigan.

Sue Peacock is now e-learning and instruction librarian at Marquette University Libraries in Milwaukee,

Devon Persing is the new interface librarian in the Scholarly Publishing Office at the University of Michigan.

Marsha Kay Schnirring, instructional services librarian at Occidental College, is now the founding director of the college’s new Center for Digital Learning and Research.

Jennifer Sharkey is the new instruction services coordinator at Illinois State University.

Faith Steele has been named to a two-year academic library residency at Marquette University Libraries in Milwaukee.

Tomaro Taylor was promoted to associate librarian at the University of South Florida.

Lori Tschirhart is the new science librarian at the Shapiro Science Library at the University of Michigan.

Joe M. Williams has been named head of access services for the University Libraries at the University of North Carolina-Greensboro.

Retirements

Judith Avery retired as librarian from the University of Michigan August 31, 2009, after 41 years of service. Avery joined the University Library in 1968 as a reference librarian in the Undergraduate Library. From 1985 to 1986, she was acting cohead of the Undergraduate Library. She joined the Graduate Library reference department in 1986 as the head of the Library Science Library and Education and Psychology Subject specialist. In 1987, Avery was appointed the head of reference services for the Graduate Library. During this time, she was responsible for reference, microform reading room, and the Information and Library Studies Library. In 1993, she was named the English Language and Literature, American Culture, Canadian Studies, and British and U.S. History subject specialist.

Deaths

Robert W. Oram, 87, director of Central University Libraries at Southern Methodist University from 1979 to 1989, has died. He began his career at the University of Missouri Library. At the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign he was circulation librarian and later associate university librarian and acting university librarian. Oram was active in ACRL and the Illinois Library Association; he was one of the founders of the Friends of the University of Illinois Library.

Robert Francis (Bob) Skinder, science librarian at the University of South Carolina’s (USC) Thomas Cooper Library from 1996 to 2008, has died. Prior to joining to USC, Skinder served as a librarian at the Federal Aviation Administration Library, Walter Reed Army Institute for Research, and Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory. He also served in the United States Marine Corps (1963–71) and in the Marine Corps Reserve (1976–91).

Robert F. Skinder