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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
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
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

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Obituaries

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
Keller, Barbara

Barbara J. Keller, 81, cataloging librarian at Indiana State University in Terre Haute 1967–1997, died February 22.

November 1, 2019

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

Latest Library Links

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The National Library of Israel is working with Google to digitize 120,000 books from its extensive collection of Jewish texts and put them online for public use. The collaboration will significantly increase the percentage of Hebrew texts available on Google Books. The library has already begun transporting 50,000 books to Google’s digitization center in Germany using climate-controlled shipping containers. Another 20,000 will be scanned in-house due to their rare or fragile nature. The whole process is expected to take around two years, after which all out-of-copyright Hebrew books will be available online and free to the public.

Washington Post, Nov. 13
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Jenny Rosenfeld writes: “Recently, the interlibrary loan staff at the Loyola Notre Dame Library tracked the locations around the world from which they borrow and lend library materials. The exercise was prompted by a student who, after being shown ILL by staff members Kate Strain and Zach Gahs-Buccheri, asked, ‘What’s the farthest library that you’ve gotten an item from?’ Turns out the answer was the Dalton McCaughey Library at the University of Melbourne in Australia, which is 10,038 miles from Loyola in Baltimore. What a great example of how ILL makes us one big library with endless shelves.”

OCLC Next, Nov. 14
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LITA and Baker & Taylor are accepting applications for the Christian Larew Memorial Scholarship for those who plan to follow a career in library and information technology, demonstrate potential leadership, and hold a strong commitment to library automation. The successful applicant will receive a $3,000 check and a citation. The application form is open through March 1.

LITA, Nov. 14
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Carrie Smith writes: “Think election season is the only time libraries can engage communities with elected officials? Think again. Not only have some libraries taken year-round approaches to civic engagement, but some also have broken with tradition to create memorable opportunities for interaction. At Manitowoc (Wis.) Public Library, which hosts a free carnival every August, local representatives such as the mayor and aldermen hop into a dunk tank or serve as targets for the water-balloon catapult. Youth Services Manager Julia Lee says getting local celebrities in the dunk tank helps break down barriers between residents and officials.”

American Libraries feature, Nov./Dec.
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Anne Ford writes: “Finding love after 50 isn’t always easy. Social norms change, life events like divorce and death leave emotional scars, and it sometimes feels as if the rest of the world has already paired off. Fortunately, there’s the library—not as a place to make romantic connections per se, but as a resource for older adults who want to learn how to navigate the world of online dating. Several public libraries have begun offering programs that help older patrons safely and effectively meet potential partners on the internet. Among those are Westport (Conn.) Public Library, Skokie (Ill.) Public Library, and Billings (Mont.) Public Library.”

American Libraries Trend, Nov./Dec.
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The New York Times Magazine editors write: “The internet hasn’t lived up to all our dreams for it. But neither, perhaps, does it conform to the nightmares (of misinformation, of alienation, of exploitation) that so many people spin around it now. In this special issue of the New York Times Magazine, we’ve tried to see the internet and its likely future as best we can, from as many angles as we can, in the hope that—after decades of imagining it as a utopia, and then a few years of seeing it as a dystopia—we might finally begin to see it for what it is, which is a set of powerful technologies in the midst of some serious flux.”

New York Times Magazine, Nov. 14
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Joe Puccio writes: “In January 2017, the Library of Congress adopted a set of strategic steps related to its acquisition of digital content as part of its strategic goal to ‘Acquire, preserve, and provide access to a universal collection of knowledge and the record of America’s creativity.’ There have been many notable achievements since then, including registration of newspaper e-prints by the Copyright Office, an increase in the number of publishers participating in Cataloging in Publication, a first-ever formal assessment of library’s purchased and leased electronic resources collection, and a model electronic resources license agreement.”

Library of Congress: The Signal, Nov. 14

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