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Appointments & Retirements

Bannon, Brian

Brian Bannon became Merryl and James Tisch Director of New York Public Library, effective September 3.

November 1, 2019
Bowen, Jeffrey

In August Jeffrey Bowen became director for library programming and public affairs at Pepperdine University Libraries in Malibu, California.

November 1, 2019
Buchanan, Stephanie

Stephanie Buchanan became director of Bucyrus (Ohio) Public Library August 26.

November 1, 2019
Clark, Dennis

University of Arkansas appointed Dennis T. Clark dean of libraries August 1.

November 1, 2019
Cooke, Nicole

Nicole A. Cooke joined University of South Carolina School of Library and Information Science as Augusta Baker Chair in Childhood Literacy in August.

November 1, 2019

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At ALA

Figliulo, Kristen

October 10 Kristen Figliulo, Association for Library Service to Children program officer for continuing education, left ALA.

November 1, 2019
Gerber, Rebecca

Rebecca Gerber, electronic resources librarian, left ALA September 5.

November 1, 2019
Gray, Jody

Jody Gray, director of the Office for Diversity, Literacy, and Outreach Services, left ALA September 6.

November 1, 2019
Harrington, Patrick

Patrick Harrington joined the Information Technology department as training specialist July 23.

November 1, 2019
Navarro, Alee

Alee Navarro, content and technology coordinator for Conference Services, left ALA August 1.

November 1, 2019

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Cited

Holmes, Gerald

Gerald Holmes, associate professor and diversity coordinator at the University of North Carolina (UNC) at Greensboro Libraries, received the UNC Chapel Hill School of Information and Library Science Distinguished Alumni Award in recognition of his contributions to diversity and equity July 10.

November 1, 2019
Scobey, Sarah

The Colorado Association of Libraries named Sarah Scobey, nonprofit resources librarian at Poudre River Public Library District, as 2019 Colorado Librarian of the Year.

November 1, 2019
Owen Intermediate School Library Media Center

Owen Intermediate School Library Media Center in Belleville, Michigan, won the state’s Model 21st Century School Library award in June in recognition of its innovative collaborations with local educators.

September 4, 2019
Hendricks, Martha

Martha Hendricks, director of Clarksville-Montgomery County (Tenn.) Public Library, received the Tennessee Library Association’s Intellectual Freedom Award April 25. Hendricks allowed Equality Clarksville to use the library’s meeting space in August 2018 to hold a drag queen storytime despite protests and personal attacks.

September 4, 2019
Olivieri, Blynne

In June the University of West Georgia in Carrollton named Ingram Library Head of Special Collections and Associate Professor Blynne Olivieri Faculty Member of the Year for the 2018-2019 academic year.

September 4, 2019

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Obituaries

Riesenman, Patricia

C. Patricia Riesenman, 86, a leader in the Reference and User Services Association’s Machine-Assisted Reference Section (MARS, now the Emerging Technologies Section), died June 7. She chaired MARS’s Education and Training of Search Analysts Committee and the Planning Committee and was active on other committees. At Indiana University Libraries, she worked to establish the Computer-Aided Reference Service in the late 1970s and helped to found and develop the Indiana Online Users Group in 1982. She received the MARS Achievement Award in 1997 and the 2006 William Evans Jenkins Librarian Award.

November 1, 2019
Barber, Peggy

Margaret “Peggy” Barber, 75, American Library Association (ALA) associate executive director of communications 1970-2000, died August 25. In that role, she established ALA’s Public Information Office, Public Programs Office, and the ALA Graphics department, which includes the Celebrity READ poster series. Barber also worked to establish the national library symbol that now appears on street signs nationwide. She coauthored Getting Your Grant: A How-toDo-It Manual for Librarians with Linda D. Crowe and received ALA’s 1999 Joseph W. Lippincott Award for distinguished service to the library profession. After leaving ALA, she was a principal consultant with Library Communication Strategies and served as copresident of Friends of Libraries USA (now United for Libraries).

November 1, 2019
Battin, Patricia

Patricia Meyer Battin, 89, president of the Commission on Preservation and Access (now the Council on Library and Information Resources) 1987–1994, died April 22. She became the first woman appointed director of an Ivy League university library when she was named vice president for information services at Columbia University in 1978. She was a leader in convincing publishers to use alkaline-based paper to combat paper deterioration, and she secured funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities for a 20-year project to microfilm 3 million endangered volumes. The Association of College and Research Libraries recognized her as 1990 Academic/Research Librarian of the Year, and President Bill Clinton awarded her the National Humanities Medal in 1999.

November 1, 2019
Bentley, Carol

Carol Ligon Bentley, 92, a professor of library sciences at Chicago State University until her retirement in 1999, died May 29. Bentley was a member of Black Women in Higher Education and a chapter director of Phi Delta Kappa.

November 1, 2019
Cleveland, Donald

Donald B. Cleveland, 83, professor emeritus at the University of North Texas School of Library and Information Science in Denton, died April 17. He designed the school’s interdisciplinary PhD program in information science. The Association for Information Science and Technology recognized him with the Outstanding Information Science Teacher Award in 2004. Cleveland cowrote Introduction to Indexing and Abstracting and Health Informatics for Medical Librarians and served as a consultant to many national and international organizations.

November 1, 2019

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Send notices and photos to Amy Carlton, acarlton@ala.org.

Latest Library Links

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Rebecca Hill writes: “As a former litigator and appellate litigator, Deborah Caldwell-Stone is a woman that you want defending libraries and their role in a democracy. A staunch supporter of intellectual freedom, Caldwell-Stone has been serving as the interim director for the ALA Office of Intellectual Freedom since 2018. In October, she was appointed as director for the office and as executive director of the Freedom to Read Foundation. I spoke with Caldwell-Stone about what we can expect to see in her new role.”

Intellectual Freedom Blog, Dec. 5
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The Dirt Hole and Its Variations might be a serious guide to hunting and trapping foxes, coyotes, bobcats, and raccoons, but the double entendre has helped it land the Diagram Prize for the oddest book title of the year. The late Charles L. Dobbins’s self-published guide blew away its competition, landing 40% of the public vote to put it ahead of the second-placed Ending the War on Artisan Cheese. Also shortlisted were How to Drink Without Drinking, Viking Encounters: Proceedings of the 18th Viking Congress, Noah Gets Naked, and Hitler’s Monsters: A Supernatural History of the Third Reich.

The Guardian (UK), Nov. 29
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Thoroughly updated and expanded to include genres such as graphic novels and nonfiction, the new second edition of Teaching Banned Books: 32 Guides for Children and Teens, published by ALA Editions, is a classroom- and library-ready book of discussion guides. Inside, award-winning champion of children’s literature Pat R. Scales shows that there is a way to teach these books while respecting all views. Also freshened to include only books that are in print, this resource spotlights titles dealing with sensitive but vital issues such as bullying, racism, bigotry, making tough choices, other cultures, and our uncertain future.

ALA Editions, Dec. 5
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The UCLA Film and Television Archive, the second-largest repository of motion pictures and broadcast programming in the US, is now part of the UCLA Library. The archive, which had operated under the auspices of the UCLA School of Theater, Film, and Television, will now be more closely aligned with the UCLA Library’s world-class archival and research collections. The move positions the archive’s holdings to be better integrated in instruction and research at UCLA, and it will expand access to the archive through the library’s robust digital platforms.

UCLA Newsroom, Dec. 4
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The Wood River (Ill.) Public Library will be receiving a new bike rack that was donated by the Wood River Library Foundation. The rack was going to cost about $3,000, but thanks to community outreach and support, the library foundation saved a lot of money. Upon hearing the original price of the rack, foundation member Andy Russell contacted East Alton–Wood River High School welding teacher Jacob Sitze to help construct a bike rack from scratch. Sitze was happy to help, and students also played an important part, figuring out mathematically how long the pieces needed to be, as well as cutting the pieces out for welding.

Alton (Ill.) Telegraph, Dec. 4
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The ACRL Rare Books and Manuscripts Section invites new and emerging special collections professionals to submit proposals for “The Power of New Voices,” a panel session to be held at the upcoming RBMS 2020 Conference in Bloomington, Indiana, June 23–26. The session will consist of approximately eight lightning round talks (7 minutes each) by students, recent graduates, new professionals, or past RBMS scholarship recipients. Talks must address the theme “Power, Resistance, and Leadership” and should relate to special collections or archives practice and related research.

RBMS blog, Dec. 3
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Brandi Bowers writes: “Providing readers’ advisory is an art that librarians are skilled at. However, sometimes you just can’t reach every student for one-on-one help finding the perfect book. To combat this issue, I try to make my library more accessible by providing passive readers’ advisory in a variety of ways. In my four years as a school librarian, I have made a number of changes to the library collection and library space with passive readers’ advisory in mind. For example, I started by adding genre labels to all of my fiction titles. I also added series number stickers to the spines of books so it is clear which volume in a series each book is.”

Knowledge Quest blog, Dec. 4

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