People
Appointments & Retirements
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Jonathan Wark
August 31 Jonathan Wark retired as director of East Albemarle Regional Library System in Elizabeth City, North Carolina.
February 21, 2024 -
Sandra Treadway
Sandra Treadway retired as librarian of Virginia in January.
February 21, 2024 -
Laura Sullivan
Laura Sullivan retired as student success librarian at Northern Kentucky University in Highland Heights in December.
February 21, 2024 -
Lois Schultz
Lois Schultz retired as associate dean of collections at Northern Kentucky University in Highland Heights in December.
February 21, 2024 -
Lois Hamill
Lois Hamill retired as archivist at Northern Kentucky University in Highland Heights in December.
February 21, 2024
At ALA
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Holly Robison
Holly Robison was promoted to program officer in the Office of ALA Governance November 27.
February 21, 2024 -
Wendy Prellwitz
November 13 Gwendolyn “Wendy” Prellwitz joined Conference Services in the new role of conference marketing and engagement manager.
February 21, 2024 -
Mike Larson
Mike Larson joined ALA as controller November 13.
February 21, 2024 -
Thompson, Marlo
Marlo Thompson joined ALA as human resources assistant September 13.
December 31, 2023 -
Smith, Letitia
Letitia Smith retired as membership marketing manager for the Young Adult Library Services Association November 1.
December 31, 2023
Cited
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Kathleen Slocum
In September the South Dakota Library Association awarded Kathleen Slocum, accessible library services manager at South Dakota State Library in Pierre, its 2023 Distinguished Service Award.
February 21, 2024 -
Rachel Grover
Rachel Grover, librarian at Rocky Run Middle School in Chantilly, Virginia, received the Virginia Association for School Librarians’ 2023 School Librarian of the Year Award November 3.
February 21, 2024 -
Alyssa Coleman
September 26 Alyssa Coleman, digital services librarian at Luzerne County (Pa.) Community College, was named 2023 New Librarian of the Year by the Pennsylvania Library Association.
February 21, 2024 -
Rink, Tom
In August the Special Libraries Association (SLA) awarded its 2023 John Cotton Dana Award, recognizing lifetime achievement and exceptional service to SLA and the library and information profession, to Tom Rink, an instructor for library services at the Broken Arrow campus of Northeastern State University in Oklahoma.
December 31, 2023 -
Farmer, Lesley
Lesley Farmer, professor of library media at California State University, Long Beach, and Valerie Perry, director of University of Kentucky’s Science and Engineering Library in Lexington, received the Special Libraries Association’s 2023 Rose L. Vormelker Award, which recognizes mid-career members for teaching and mentorship.
November 1, 2023
Obituaries
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Michael D. Toman
Michael D. Toman, 73, adult services librarian at South Pasadena (Calif.) Public Library from 1995 until his 2015 retirement, died September 2.
February 21, 2024 -
Betty-Carol Sellen
Betty-Carol Sellen, 89, who held positions at the City University of New York (CUNY) Brooklyn College Library from 1964 until her retirement in 1990, died November 26. She had previously served at Brooklyn Public Library from 1959 to 1960 and University of Washington Law Library in Seattle from 1960 to 1963. She was a founder of ALA’s Social Responsibilities Round Table and its Feminist Task Force, chaired the Committee on the Status of Women in Librarianship, and helped organize an ALA preconference on the Status of Women in Librarianship in 1974. In 1990, Sellen received the ALA Equality Award. Her numerous publications included The Librarian’s Cookbook and What Else You Can Do with a Library Degree.
February 21, 2024 -
George Needham
George Needham, 68, retired director of Delaware County (Ohio) District Library, died November 28. Needham also served as state librarian of Michigan, executive director of ALA’s Public Library Association, vice president of OCLC, and director of Fairfield County (Ohio) District Library. He received the Ohio Library Council’s Hall of Fame Librarian award in 2022.
February 21, 2024 -
Carole J. McCollough
Carole J. McCollough, 86, retired associate professor and dean of the library and information science program at Wayne State University in Detroit, died December 1. With the Children’s Defense Fund, McCollough conducted workshops for college interns training to run summer literacy (Freedom School) programs. She was chair of the Coretta Scott King Book Awards Task Force from 2000 to 2004, chaired the Coretta Scott King Book Award jury six times, and coedited two editions of The Coretta Scott King Awards, including the 50th anniversary edition published in 2019. McCollough also served on the boards of Southfield (Mich.) Public Library and Langston Hughes Library in Clinton, Tennessee.
February 21, 2024 -
James Kyed
James Kyed, 86, retired librarian at Harvard University Library in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and head of the Environmental Protection Agency’s Superfund Records Center for the New England region, died November 30. Kyed had previously worked at the engineering libraries at Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge for 20 years—including 13 years as head librarian—and Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta. In retirement, he was a trustee for Truro Public Library in North Truro, Massachusetts, and chair of its endowment fund.
February 21, 2024
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