Cecilia Sercan is one of those staff members whose name is virtually synonymous with Cornell cataloging, and not just at CUL. Cecilia has worn many hats over the years here and is a fount of knowledge and institutional memory. That knowledge and those memories are the hard-earned result of her 40-year tenure at CUL, during which she has won respect as the doyenne of bibliographic description, subject analysis, and classification in her areas of expertise.

Cecilia came to Ithaca in 1969, newly married to a graduate student at Cornell (Kadri Sercan of Olin Collection Maintenance). When looking for a job at the university, she was pleasantly surprised to find an opening in the Library for a Luso-Brazilian specialist. The position was funded by the Ford Foundation and supported by the Latin American Studies Program. Since Cecilia had been in graduate school at NYU working toward a doctorate in Luso-Brazilian Studies, she felt both qualified and incredibly lucky to find a position in her field of expertise. She continues to work primarily with Latin American materials to this day in both Spanish and her native Portuguese.

Though working as an original cataloger in what was then Central Technical Service, Cecilia did not hold an MLS. She began studying for that degree part-time at Syracuse University in the fall of 1972 and completed her coursework in 1978. She later moved from student to teacher, working as an adjunct cataloging and serials librarianship instructor for University at Albany’s MLS program, which at that time offered courses at Binghamton University’s campus in Vestal.

Cecilia directed the NEH grant which Cornell received for the processing and/or conversion of the Dante Collection in the Division of Rare and Manuscripts Collections (RMC) for 2 years (1986-1988), then returned to CTS. She served as head of Original Cataloging and Principal Cataloger from 1993-1997, and also did a stint as authorities librarian from January to June 1995. In 1997, she stepped down as head of original cataloging, but retained the principal cataloger position. She also assumed the collection development responsibilities for philosophy and Portuguese studies. In 2006, she stopped selecting philosophy materials, but has since added the selection of materials on philately.

Cecilia has been very active with SALALM (Seminar on the Acquisition of Latin American Library Materials), a professional organization dedicated to control and dissemination of bibliographic information about all types of Latin American publications and the development of library collections of Latin Americana in support of educational research. Cecilia joined SALAM in 1972. In the course of more than three decades of membership, she has chaired five committees and presented papers or organized panels on topics as varied as Dublin Core metadata, minimal-level cataloging, and vendor-provided records. Cecilia has also been the Cornell representative to the CONSER Operations Committee, an annual meeting of libraries participating in the CONSER program held each spring at the Library of Congress.

When not tackling problems of bibliographic control, Cecilia enjoys a number of other pursuits. She reads with what she calls “alarming regularity”, tackling at least three books per week. She and Kadri enjoy opera and have had season ticket packages for various opera companies for more than 10 years. (This year they are going to the Metropolitan Opera in New York). They also enjoy musical theater and usually fit in a Broadway show when on one of their regular treks to New York or Toronto for the opera. Cecilia is also an avid hockey fan. Her NHL team is the New Jersey Devils and she subscribes to the Center Ice TV channel so that she won't miss a game. But she does miss games, though, when they conflict with Cornell home hockey matches, for which she has long been a season-ticket holder. Cecilia also enjoys a lot of handwork—quilting, embroidery, knitting—and, as her colleagues fortunate enough to sample her wares will attest, is an outstanding cook and baker.