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April 2008Anne Kenney Is 11th Carl A. Kroch Librarian Anne Kenney Is 11th Carl A. Kroch Librarian
The Library has a new university librarian. At a special meeting in the Kroch lecture room late Monday afternoon on March 31, Provost Biddy Martin announced that she had offered the position to Anne Kenney and she had accepted. Congratulations to Anne on this outstanding honor. See below for the entire press release. Anne Kenney is named to lead the Cornell University Library system as the 11th Carl A. Kroch University Librarian FOR RELEASE: March 31, 2008
PROMOTIONSLibrarian Adam Chandler, DLIT Service Design Group
Along with the need to treat e-resource catalog records en masse, Adam recognized that managing e-resource licensing information was also a challenge that all libraries faced. To address the problem, Adam began collaborating with a group of librarians sponsored by the Digital Library Federation to develop the Electronic Resource Management Initiative reference model. The ERMI model quickly became a de facto standard and guided the development by library systems vendors of electronic resources management systems that have since become mainstays in the library world. Adam’s electronic resource management work eventually led to the development of the Standardized Usage Statistics Harvesting Initiative (SUSHI) for e-resource statistics gathering. SUSHI was formalized as an industry standard by the National Information Standards Organization in 2007 and the importance of SUSHI to the profession was recognized by the Association for Library Collections and Technical Services earlier this year when ALCTS awarded Adam and his SUSHI collaborator Oliver Pesch the Outstanding Collaboration Citation for their leadership in developing the standard. When asked about what he’d accomplished at Cornell over the past eight years, Adam replied that he feels fortunate to have held positions first in Library Technical Services and more recently in Digital Library and Information Technologies in which he has been able to work on projects that he really cares about. He’s particularly grateful that CUL has given him opportunities to solve local problems in ways that benefit other libraries. Adam also said that he is extremely pleased to have had a role in the movement at CUL to establish a user-centered culture for implementing new networked services. If Adam likes his work, he loves his family life. His daughter, Rose, turned four in February and his son, Hugh, turned one in January. CUL staff may remember Adam’s wife, Sarah, who worked at Catherwood Library. Sarah now divides her time between caring for Rose and Hugh and teaching clarinet to students at Binghamton University. Now that Kaleidoscope readers know a little more about Adam, when they congratulate him on his promotion they should feel free to ask, “Do bigger computer monitors really make people more productive?” Can you guess what he’ll say? ~Marty Kurth Xin Li, Research and Assessment
Since her arrival as Head of Acquisitions in 2002, Xin Li's role has steadily increased in responsibility. She is currently serving as the Director of the Research and Assessment Unit, where she is focusing on the effective use of data to support management decisions. Xin excels at identifying the means for moving from abstract thinking to focused initiatives. For example, her leadership in CATALYST went way beyond resource sharing of physical materials to address requirements for long-term collaborative relationships and shared ownership of collections. Throughout her career at Cornell, Xin's efforts have led to concrete improvements. As Head of Acquisitions, she made workflow improvements despite staff cuts, resulting in gains in productivity. She instituted cross-training and advanced the documentation and standardization of procedures. She managed the integration of technical services from four units (Veterinary, Mann, ILR, and Kroch Asia) into the Central Technical Services division, bringing to that task excellent analytical, subject, and human relations skills. The following year, Xin assumed responsibility for the Library Annex. She initiated the one-owner system and electronic delivery of microforms, and integrated the Annex into the library-to-library service network, all of which improved patron services. Under her leadership, she managed the Annex move effort, which has since resulted in a transfer of over a million items. Her leadership of the Research and Assessment Unit has raised Cornell's profile nationally and professionally, most notably among ARL members. It is to her credit that Cornell was chosen to participate in ARL's ClimateQual survey. Xin's strong leadership, open approach, collaborative nature, and effective interpersonal skills have been instrumental in her success in high profile, demanding initiatives that cut across divisional boundaries. Her investment in time and effort to earn the Executive MBA not only sharpened her planning, market research, and financial analysis skills, but also inspired other librarians to similarly continue their education. As Mary Alice Lynch, formerly Executive Director of NYLINK, pronounced, "Xin Li is one of those rare librarians whose natural intelligence, tenacity, and dedication to excellence make her stand out." ~Anne Kenney David Ruddy, DLIT Scholarly Communications Technologies
Since joining the library in 1998, David has held several positions proving his ability to adjust to our rapidly changing information landscape. His responsibilities throughout the years increased steadily and as he built experience and skills in various digital library-related domains, he became a highly desired team member due to his wide range of skills. Currently, David oversees the e-publishing technologies at DLIT and manages the technical development work of four staff members. Since 2000, his primary CUL duties have focused on electronic publishing and he has been a key player in shaping the library's scholarly communication program both in technology and policy areas. David's skills, experience, and insights were instrumental in turning Euclid into a robust service that now generates revenues. David has been the lead on the Mellon-funded DPubS project. DPubS (Digital Publishing System) is an open-source software system designed to enable the organization, presentation, and delivery of scholarly journals, monographs, conference proceedings, and other common and evolving means of academic discourse. DPubS was conceived by Cornell University Library to aid colleges and universities in managing and disseminating the intellectual discoveries and writing of scholars and researchers. It is a challenging and demanding initiative both on technology and strategy fronts. David has been at the center of the development and collaboration activities and oversaw the programming as well as testing processes. The DPubS project has expanded David's skills and experience in several areas including management, policy development, and market analysis. The project involves collaboration with several peer institutions in developing the technical requirements and David works very successfully with the technical leads of the partners. David's keen intelligence, technical acumen, and his technical management skills were critical as he mentored his technical development team. David's deep understanding of digital library technologies, standards, and best practices is an important factor in the success of both the Euclid and DPubS programs. Both of these programs are excellent examples of his ability to make collective decisions and act on those decisions effectively. David is an effective team player and participates successfully in collaborative initiatives. He has been marvelous in adjusting to new roles, team configurations, and financial models and this has been a highly valued characteristic of David in the face of our rapidly changing digital environment. In addition to his excellent track record at Cornell, David is much respected in the digital library circle with his knowledge of digital publishing, open access, distributed search protocols, and metadata standards. He has been a prolific presenter and often represents the library at Digital Library Federation (DLF) and Coalition of Networked Information (CNI) forums. Since his earliest years at Cornell, David has also developed various educational classes and workshops on technologies of use to librarians. He taught a series of introductory workshops on XML and XML-related technologies, first at Cornell as staff development courses, and then for various regional library groups in New York State. More recently he has developed a two-day workshop for ALCTS titled, "Metadata and Digital Library Development." He has taught this workshop five times at various national venues, as well as trained others to teach it. David's expertise and knowledge about the structure of scholarly communication, his thoughtful insights, and his collaborative spirit have been invaluable to the Library and the library community at large. His intellectual depth and thoughtfulness are truly remarkable and are reflected in the high quality of his professional achievements. We congratulate him on his richly deserved promotion to Librarian. ̃ Oya Rieger Associate Librarian Anna Korhonen, Library Technical Services
During her eighteen-year tenure at Cornell, Anna has worked her way up the ranks through several technical services jobs from serials check-in to cataloging some of the older materials in the Icelandic collection. She held paraprofessional management positions in Acquisitions while working towards her MLS at Syracuse University. Since that degree was conferred, her hard work for the Library, willingness to adapt to frequent job and organization changes, and dedication to the profession are well documented. As the Assistant Government Documents Librarian, Anna learned about CUL’s program and how government documents supported the educational mission of Cornell. To gain an understanding for the student’s perspective on how to approach using government documents, she completed coursework in the School of Government. Following a retirement one year later, Anna stepped into some very big shoes and began her role as Documents Librarian. One of the first challenges Anna met as Documents Librarian was the successful adaptation and implementation of CUL’s electronic documents program by leveraging metadata supplied by Marcive, Inc. to address the flood of electronic government documents. Many of our peer institutions are still wrangling with electronic documents while Cornell users already have been able to access them through the OPAC for several years. For those who keep score, the technical services departments at Cornell have undergone several rounds of reorganization over the past fifteen years. Just as she was making the important professional connections related to government documents, Anna was asked to manage the large acquisitions operation as well. Anna currently serves as CUL’s Head of Acquisitions Services where she and her staff do all that they can both to support a significant acquisitions workload as well as to ensure the timely delivery of those items identified as of critical importance to our users. It truly is a balancing act, but she does it well. ̃ Scott Wicks Senior Assistant Librarian Camille Andrews, Mann Library
Camille Andrews came to Cornell in 2004 as one of the CUL Library Fellows. In addition to later fellowship assignments in Olin Reference and DCAPS, Camille began her fellowship at Mann Library working in public services and on a special project to develop training material for developing world users of The Essential Electronic Agricultural Library (TEEAL) and Access to Global Online Research in Agriculture (AGORA). Little did Camille know that her work on TEEAL and AGORA would soon take her to Ethiopia and South Africa! Camille won the Ans Van Tienhoven Travel Award in 2005 to travel to Africa to serve as an AGORA trainer in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. In the great tradition of “the show must go on!” Camille and the other AGORA trainers managed to present their four-day workshop in spite of the sudden political unrest in Ethiopia’s capital city. Some workshop participants even braved traveling through street protests to reach the AGORA workshop. Who says librarians are timid?! In January 2006, Camille became Mann Library’s Instruction Coordinator. Camille is noted at Mann for being an early adopter when it comes to technology. She has explored a number of new technologies for potential use in Mann’s instruction program, including blogs, wikis, LibGuides, clickers, podcasts, online tutorials, and more. Camille also assisted with the design of Mann’s new collaborative technology spaces in the renovated building. Camille is currently working on the Cornell Undergraduate Information Competency Initiative team and will be helping to carry out collaborative faculty-librarian programs on campus this summer after travelling to UC Berkeley for training in March. Camille has a Bachelor’s degree in Literary and Cultural Studies from the College of William and Mary focusing on Francophone and Caribbean Literature, and she received her M.S in Library and Information Science from Simmons Graduate School of Library and Information Science. Even though those humanities examples keep popping into her head, she has learned to think in terms of soil science and animal husbandry, teaching many of Mann’s course-related instruction sessions each semester. Camille has been a real asset to Mann Library, and we are pleased to congratulate her on her promotion to Senior Assistant Librarian! ̃ Mary Ochs Eileen Heeran, Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections
Eileen Heearn was hired as the Library’s Assistant Rare Books Curator in the Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections in November of 2006. Chosen from a highly competitive pool of more than 200 applicants, Eileen stood out from the crowd: for her dedication to the special collections profession, her range of interests in reference, teaching, cataloging, and collection development, and for her cheerful and outgoing personality. Prior to her arrival at CUL, Eileen worked as a rare book cataloguer in the special collections library at the University of Michigan, and an archivist at the Biltmore Estate in North Carolina. Notable during her time at the University of Michigan was the leadership she contributed as chair of the Library's Diversity Committee. Nationally, Eileen has been an active member of the ALA/ACRL’s Rare Books and Manuscripts Section (RBMS): first as a member of the highly selective Bibliographic Standards Committee, the body responsible for creating national standards and guidelines for the cataloging of rare print materials, and more recently, Eileen has served as a member of two committees responsible for organizing annual RBMS conference programs. Eileen has excelled in multiple roles since she arrived at Cornell 17 months ago, tackling diverse tasks with energy and creativity. She serves with capability on RMC's reference desk, has taken on challenging teaching assignments, and has completed several archival processing projects, such as finalizing EAD access (Encoded Archival Description) for the Jon Lindseth Woman Suffrage Collection. Most significantly, in March 2007 Eileen took on greatly expanded responsibilities when she was appointed Coordinator of RMC's ever expanding exhibition program, a position that requires juggling challenging deadlines and working closely with RMC curators as well as CUL staff in Library Development, Library Communications, Preservation and Conservation, and Digital Consulting and Production Services. Her colleagues find her a delight to work with, and she always has a friendly word for everyone who crosses her path. Eileen's abilities were recognized by her CUL peers when she was elected to the Academic Steering Committee in the summer of 2007. ~ Katherine Reagan Sarah Keen, Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections
Sarah came to Cornell in 2004 when she was hired as a project archivist, to organize and make accessible the historical material of the American Association of Family and Consumer Sciences (AAFCS). Formerly the American Home Economics Association, this is one of the first professional women’s associations in the country. From the beginning, Sarah established intellectual control of the collection and laid the groundwork to process the original 450 plus boxes that were transferred from AAFCS headquarters in Virginia. Sarah came to Cornell with previous experience working with large collections, having processed the Jane Harman Congressional Papers at Smith College’s Sophia Smith Collection. Besides processing, she has promoted the collection by presenting talks at the AAFCS annual conferences, writing and producing short online videos found on the AAFCS Web site, and highlighting the treasures of the collection at the archives opening event this past October. The AAFCS membership was invited to this event and at the end Sarah was honored with a standing ovation. Additionally, Sarah presented talks at the Society of American Archivists (SAA) annual conferences, at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Archives Conference, and at the New York Archives Conference. She also served as Web liaison in SAA for both the Congressional Papers Roundtable and the Women’s Collections Roundtable. She is active in the Cornell University Library, having chaired the Committee on the Economic Status of Librarians, participating in the Library’s Mentorship Program, and giving a talk to staff entitled, “Challenges in Organizing and Describing the Records of an Evolving Organization.” Now that the AAFCS project is complete, Sarah’s time is devoted to cataloging, arranging, and describing various manuscript, archival, and audiovisual collections and compiling finding aids. She is currently exploring the possibility of Cornell using the Archivists’ Toolkit, which is an open source archival data management system that provides broad, integrated support for the management of archives. Along with her other responsibilities, Sarah provides excellent reference service, answering patrons’ questions during this AAFCS centennial year and working on the security and reference desks in the Division. Sarah’s accomplishments are evidence of her dedication to her career and her sincere interest in the archival profession. Please join me in extending congratulations on a well-deserved promotion. ~ Eileen Keating Susan Kendrick, Management Library
Susan joined the Management Library staff in 2006 on one of her favourite holidays, Halloween. The rest of our library was concerned she might view the date as a negative, so we were pleasantly surprised that Susan was thrilled by the coincidence. This past fall she even convinced us to celebrate Halloween with decorations, candy, and a costume contest that she won hands down. Who could compete with her Danger Mouse outfit? Come by our library to see photos. Her love of Halloween aside, Susan is a dedicated, diligent librarian. She digs deeply for answers when confronted with unusual research questions. She cares passionately about meeting patron needs and often goes the extra mile to continue working on a question in order to extend her own knowledge about a new topic. She is our first line of contact for email reference and her thoughtful responses have helped numerous confused students find the information they need for their coursework. In fact, Susan has been taking classes to boost her business knowledge and we’ve definitely benefited from her increased subject expertise. The Management Library instruction team offers numerous instruction sessions throughout the year. Susan has become our lead instructor for Bloomberg and consumer market research. Both of these classes require skill and finesse as she explains complex concepts to relative beginners. Workshop attendees appreciate her kind, inclusive teaching manner and her quick wit, too. One particular area in which Susan has taken leadership is working with the Johnson School’s Public Relations Office to promote faculty research. Susan manages a faculty publications database that helps our public relations staff keep current with faculty publishing efforts. As the school’s Web site evolves this spring, there will be a new faculty research page that will pull data from RefShare feeds Susan has created as the next generation of the research database. This is an impressive effort that has forged a tie with the PR office that previously did not exist. In her spare time, Susan enjoys spending time with her nieces and nephews, life on the beach, and savouring a good ale . . . or two! Warm congratulations to Susan on her well-deserved promotion to Senior Assistant Librarian. ~ Angela Horne Lynn Thitchener, Collections, Reference, Instruction, and Outreach
Lynn has worked in Olin since 1987 in various positions. She became a librarian in 2005. Since then she has continued to develop her skills in front-line reference for social science and humanities topics; she has also taught an average of 12 library instruction sessions per semester, including technology workshops, and additional outreach classes to area high school groups and others. In addition, she has begun to develop subject specialization in government and statistical resources. On October 1st, 2007, she accepted selector responsibilities for Olin government materials. Besides selecting materials for the collection, she will be creating a Government/Political Science Subject Guide and developing a liaison relationship with the Government Department. She is also hoping to create a CUL-wide, collaborative listserv for statistical reference questions, perhaps in conjunction with a statistical reference wiki. Lynn is very active in the department's instruction program. She has been working on including interactive teaching methods in her sessions, e.g., clickers, and has received positive feedback on her instruction sessions from instructors and students alike. Lynn's main focus in the past several years has been staff training and information management in general. She has been actively participating in the training of new reference staff by creating detailed training outlines, a Web page on statistical resources and a short, introductory PowerPoint presentation on basic statistical resources and strategies, as well as two in-house workshops on finding data for statistical reference questions. She collaborated with Access Services, Asia Reference, and Media Services to create a shared knowledge base using the Confluence wiki technology. She has personally transferred the department's information index onto the wiki, which allows for distributed maintenance and updates and serves as a knowledge base for new reference staff. Lynn is currently the chair of the Academic Assembly Steering Committee. Congratulations, Lynn! ~ Kornelia Tancheva Unit in the Spotlight: Wason Collection on East Asia
From left: Xian Wu, Liren Zheng, Carrie Wonson Yang, Daniel McKee United Way 2007
For the second year in a row, the Cornell United Way Campaign went over the top with a record-breaking fund total of over $804,000 representing 115% of its goal. Steve Golding, Executive Vice President for Finance and Administration and 2007 Campaign Chair, acknowledged the generosity of Cornell at the windup on March 27 in Schoellkopf Hall. While Cornell did not achieve its participation goal of 20%, with faculty and staff participation at just over 17%, in the Library we had a typical strong showing of 28%. The Library and several other units who met or surpassed the 20% participation goal received certificates of appreciation. Units within the Library that had participation over 28% include Engineering, Law, Physical Sciences, DMS, DLIT, RMC, LTS-ACQ, LTS-CATLOG, PSA, and Library Administration, as well as these ‘tiny’ units: Asia Collections, Library Research, and South Asia Program. Many thanks to the following volunteers who helped within the Library: Rachel Brill, Lee Cartmill, Linda Mapes, Donna Moore, and Scott Wicks. Thank you to all of you who continue to support the social service agencies in our communities year after year. Your generosity is palpable and very much appreciated. Elizabeth Teskey, Division Deputy for CUL People NewsWELCOME Welcome to Ryan Krolick, the new Public Computing Coordinator for Olin and Uris, who joined CRIO in early March. He will be working closely with Desktop Services to provide support for the computing and printing environment in Olin and Uris. Ryan has a BS in computer science with a minor in art studio from Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania, where he also worked as a lab consultant. Hilde Maaike Gerretsen-Oldemans has accepted a six-month temporary position at the Fine Arts Library as an access services assistant, as of the end of January 2008. Maaike recently completed a master’s degree in Information and Library Management from Northumbria University, UK (a distance education program). She also has a bachelor’s degree in Library Science. Maaike's library experience includes six years as Head of the Library, Design Academy, Eindhoven, the Netherlands. PROMOTIONS Edsel Watkins has been promoted from senior library assistant to Interlibrary Services Supervisor at The Samuel J. Wood Library, Weill Cornell Medical College. Edsel will coordinate interlibrary and document services and manage a team of 2.5 employees. Congratulations, Edsel! CONGRATULATIONS Congratulations to Diana Delgado, Head of Information Access Services at the Weill Cornell Medical Library, on being accepted for the fall session of the National Library of Medicine 2008 fellowship program in Biomedical Informatics at the Marine Biological Laboratory. The purpose of this program which is directed by a group of renowned faculty, is to train participants in “the application of information science and computer technologies in health care, biomedical research, and health professions education” to become “agents of change in their institutions.” ANNOUNCEMENTS Distinguished Citizen of the Month
Our colleague from the Management Library, Terri Whitaker, recently recognized for heroic action that saved the life of a student at the Johnson School, was honored by the county last month with the Distinguished Citizen of the Month award. The award was presented to Terri (and also to local resident Frank Towner, to the right of Terri) by Tompkins County Legislator Greg Stevenson. Congratulations, Terri! Academic State of the University On Wednesday March 5, 2008, Biddy Martin delivered the second annual Academic State of the University Address to faculty, students, trustees, and staff in Call Auditorium at Kennedy Hall. As the chief academic officer of the university, Provost Biddy Martin was asked last year by President Skorton to give what would become an annual report on the health of the university. This year Biddy focused on the pressures on higher education, including the difficulties inherent in rankings, Cornell’s new financial aid packages, and what makes Cornell who we are. She ended with a brief video excerpt from a recent conference in New York City, showing several faculty answers to the question, “Why Cornell?” Among the answers was, “the superb library that we have.” For an account of her speech go to the Chronicle Online where you can also find a link to her speech on CornellCast. New Web Site for Hotel
We are pleased to announce the release of the Nestle Library's renovated Web site! After months of planning, designing, programming, and editing the site went live on Thursday 28 February 2008. This project was part of the Hotel School's site-wide renovation and a great collaboration between library content providers, Statler IT Web and application programmers and the project leadership team. Special thanks go to Melissa Kuo who did a great job of bringing other Cornell University Library Web site experience to the project and was instrumental in bringing many good ideas to the site, and the Nestlé Web team including Derrick Brown, Staci Rogers, Jeff Shampnois, Ken Bolton, and Somaly Kim-Wu for all of the heavy lifting in moving all our content. Other thanks go out to the Statler IT Web team, especially Michael Fraker who managed this project. We encourage all to visit the site at www.hotelschool.cornell.edu/research/library/. ~ Don Schnedeker Congratulations
Congratulations to Kirsten Hensley from the Physical Sciences Library on the birth of her son. She writes: Kirsten and Chris are happy to announce the birth of Jack Hensley. Jackson Thomas Hensley was born on St. Patrick’s Day, March 17, 2008, at 19:39, weighing 10 lbs. 1 oz. and measuring 21 inches. We're all at home and doing well. Thanks for the kind wishes, Kirsten GOOD-BYE
Good bye and good luck to Kris Alpi, Weill Cornell, Diana Goodrich, ILS, and Chris Philipp, Library Communications, who recently left the Library. FAREWELL Kristine Alpi, Associate Director of the Weill Cornell Medical Library since 2005, resigned in March to become the Director of the William Rand Kenan Jr. Library of Veterinary Medicine at North Carolina State University, Raleigh, North Carolina. Kris began her tenure at Weill Cornell Medical Library in 2000, as an Information Services Librarian, a position she held for almost three years. During that time, she earned an M.P.H. from Hunter College in Community Health Education. She held a faculty appointment as Lecturer in the Department of Public Health here at Weill Cornell Medical College of Cornell University since 2002. In between her Cornell positions, Kris was the manager of the Public Health Library at the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. Well known for her teaching, publishing, and her numerous professional activities, Kris was named a Distinguished Member of the Academy of Health Information Professionals (AHIP) in 2007. Kris was celebrated at a farewell party, hosted by the Library and the Department of Public Health, on February 29. We will miss her. ~ Loretta Merlo
Photographs supplied by Loretta Merlo Chris Philipp is leaving Library Communications for the role of editor in University Communication's Office of Publications and Marketing. Chris has been an integral part of the Library's communications efforts since the summer of 2006. Her energy, insights, and creativity were evident in the many press releases, Chronicle articles, podcasts, publications, and marketing efforts that effectively conveyed the depth and breadth of CUL. While we will miss Chris and the talents she brought to her role as staff writer/editor for the Library, we wish her much success in her exciting new position where she will be producing major college and university publications, both print and electronic. Please join us in saying good-bye and best wishes to Chris on her last day: Friday, March 14, Room 703 Olin, 10:00-11:00 a.m. ~Ellen Marsh RETIREMENTS Diane Hillmann
Colleagues: There comes a time, even in the relatively orderly lives of librarians, when it becomes necessary to make a leap of faith. Like most of you, I've taken a few of those leaps in my Cornell career, but now the time has come to take one out of career "home" and into an environment where I can continue my research interests. Ergo, I am officially "retiring" from Cornell as of the Ides of March, and joining the staff of the Information Institute of Syracuse, at the School of Information Studies at Syracuse University. I have a long history with SU, as my B.S. and M.L.S. degrees are from there, I've worked for the SU library, and I've taught there as an adjunct lecturer several times. I'm very pleased to be working with the Institute, and they've given me a really cool title: Director of Metadata Initiatives. I think it's the best title I've ever had, and look forward to "initiating" some interesting and useful projects. You can take a look at the press release they've put out here: http://ischool.syr.edu/about/news.aspx?recid=513. I will continue to work primarily from Metadata Central in Jacksonville, but may be doing some back and forth to Syracuse as projects develop. You can also expect me to continue to show up on occasion to Cornell events (the Metadata Working Group meetings in particular). I agree that this is a pretty weird plan for retirement, but I was never that keen on full retirement anyway. I'm involved in some particularly interesting stuff at the moment (the DCMI/RDA Task Group chiefly, see: http://www.dublincore.org/dcmirdataskgroup/) and plan to keeping working as long as it's still fun (I've no idea when that will be, but assume I'll know it when I see it)! In the meantime, I'm often available for lunch downtown or in Collegetown, so please keep me on your rolodex. This email will continue to work so will continue to be a good way to contact me. ~ Diane Diane I. Hillmann, Director of Metadata Initiatives, Information Institute of Syracuse OBITUARIES Judith Holliday, 1938-2008
1961-1962 Acting Music Librarian A memorial service was held on March 1, 2008 at St. John’s Episcopal Church and in New York City at the end of March. Judith requested that memorial contributions be directed to the Tompkins County Public Library or the SPCA of Tompkins County. See below for links to several obituaries, a tribute from her colleagues in the Society of Architectural Historians, and memories from staff and colleagues. Thanks to Ed Weissman, Lyndsi Prignon, and Martha Walker for their help with this piece. College of Architecture, Art & Planning News, February 13, 2008 Tribute from the Society of Architectural Historians JUDITH ELIZABETH HOLLIDAY, born March 16, 1938 in Butler, PA, grew up in nearby Mercer, then set off to attend the College of Wooster for a bachelor's degree in music, followed by a master's in library science from Columbia University. She joined the Cornell University Library staff in 1961, and was soon appointed Fine Arts Librarian, serving in that position until her retirement in December 1998 [editor’s note: HR records indicate it was September 1999]. The life tapestry that she wove was seamlessly animated by diverse activities: library work and acting, opera and baseball, travel and time at home. The Fine Arts Library that she administered at Cornell contained several collections. Its core was a large number of books on architecture assembled by Andrew Dickson White, Cornell's first president. Art and history of art books were added to support departments in these areas. An extensive literature in city planning and in landscape architecture became part of the library as those departments rose to prominence at the university. With assured professionalism, Judith developed holdings in the expanding literatures of five diverse disciplines into superb collections, the mark and distinction of the Library today. The Society of Architectural Historians (SAH) membership profited for decades from Judith's collection-building energy and talent. She initiated and long contributed the list of publications that was a dependable feature of the SAH Newsletter, each list an intelligently selected and organized distillation from her daily work. From February 1979 through June 2000, she produced 122 lists that included 10,000 items. Individuals, faculty, and scholars across the country employed these lists to keep current with the literature in their areas of interest, and they were used regularly by libraries for their acquisition programs. In those pre-digital times, rigorous collection building was an act of love, inordinately time consuming and based on making effective, rapid decisions. In a small office beneath balcony stairs that she shared with her staff, Judith sat amidst stacks of bookseller and publisher catalogues and mimeographed lists, tracking current publications of all types. Her regular routine was to arrive at the library hours before opening so that she would have uninterrupted time to pursue this task. She left at the end of the day with a collection of catalogues for more work in the evening. A longtime member of SAH, Judith regularly attended the annual meetings as a lively participant in the intellectual fare of the sessions. She read broadly in the history of architecture, and was fascinated by and knowledgeable about ongoing conversations that addressed the built domain. Her participation in the meetings traditionally included a visit to the local ballpark, perhaps more for the game than the stadium architecture. She was especially delighted if her beloved New York Yankees happened to be the visiting team. An enthusiastic traveler, she participated in many SAH study tours--Sicily, Brazil, San Francisco, Finland, Cuba, Turkey, Peru, and India, among others. She also journeyed with friends, often SAH members, to locations near and far, well prepared for the experiences by her advance perusal of guidebooks, maps, and relevant literature. Her facility with several languages supported her travels, just as it did her library work. Judith was an avid and omnivorous reader of fiction in addition to books about her many interests. She absorbed The New York Times daily, then plunged through its crossword puzzle. Passionate about opera, for decades she maintained season subscriptions to the Metropolitan Opera. Gourmet cuisine was one of her great pleasures, as both diner and cook. She visited some of the great restaurants of France, savoring great food with dear friends. A pianist, flutist, singer, and actor, performance was her style, off stage in animated conversation and story-telling and on-stage in Ithaca theater productions and at one point off Broadway. Judith was also avid in her friendships, becoming the link that united many, many diverse individuals around the country and world. Her friends might have met in person only briefly or not at all, but they knew each other anyhow from her stories, introduced and punctuated with the references, "My friend A" and "My friends the Bs." Seven decades of living well were marred only slightly by the cancer that took her from us on the morning of February 8, 2008, comfortable in her bed at home, an opera playing quietly in the room. ̃ Christian F. Otto, Mark Ashton, Kevin Harrington Reprinted with permission from the April 2008 Newsletter of the Society of Architectural Historians. Fond Memories of Judith Memories from the ’70s The entire Fine Arts Library staff loved putting jigsaw puzzles together so it was not unusual for us to spend our lunch hours hunched over a 1,000 piece Swiss scene (spread out on a large table in the library’s “storage” room). One particular January, after the library closed at 5 pm, we opened a bottle of wine and ate a dinner of cheese and crackers while five or six of us labored over a challenging part of the puzzle until our backs were aching and our eyes sore. What fun we had recounting those memories! ̃ Anne Beyer, Fine Arts Library My Memory of Judith One of my memories from working with Judith would be her interest in keeping up with my daughters' lives. It started when my daughters were young and had a day off from school. They would enjoy coming to work with me on occasion with their roller skates and skate across the sidewalks on the Arts Quad on nice days for hours. Judith got to know my daughters during these visits and would always ask me how they were doing after this stage passed and they had other interests. She wanted to hear about their college choices, marriage plans (when the time came) and, as recently as last December, I was sending her updated pictures of my grandchildren via email so that she could see how much they had grown. She had a genuine interest in keeping up with their lives even after she retired. ̃ Deb Muscato, Physical Sciences Library This Is What I Remember I first met Judith in 1987, when I began working at the Fine Arts Library as a circulation supervisor. In my ten years at FAL, I found Judith to be a person with very high standards and a strong sense of professionalism. She had a solid work ethic and expected those around her to have the same; my impression is that she lived her life by the adage, “the show must go on.” I enjoyed when she shared glimpses of her very interesting life outside of the FAL--her love of travel and her commitment to visit each state in the U.S.; her love of the theater; her ancient Volkswagen car; her quiet, behind-the-scenes volunteer work with services such as Gadabout; her devotion to “octogenarian friends.” I found her to be a mix of interesting characteristics and am glad to have gotten to know her. ̃ Bonnie Bailey, Institute for European Studies, Cornell This Is a Story That Comes to Mind One Monday we had a staff meeting. Judith started with a story about driving up the lake on Sunday. There was a large storm coming down the lake. No boats on the lake except one with waterskiing. She was impressed with this. I meekly raised my hand claiming that I was the driver. As I'm not known to partake in such activities, there was curiosity about this scenario. I explained that I spent most of the morning trying to dodge my teenage step-daughter’s request to take her friends waterskiing. As was evident--I lost. I was able to get back to harbor, secure boat, and drive home without incident. Upon opening porch door the heavens opened. A tornado had hit Jacksonville and our phone died. Not a bad day but a good story to tell. ̃ Will Parker, Fine Arts Library In Memoriam: Judith Holliday Judith Holliday, the fine arts librarian at Cornell from about 1970 to the mid 1990s, died last Friday at home in Ithaca. I first knew her when I was a copy cataloger at Cornell from 1969-1971 and her fine example as librarian played a part in my evolution from art history grad student to library school student. Judith was a consummate bibliographer in architecture, both for the Cornell collections and as compiler of the SAH Newsletter booklist for many years. When I was back at Cornell in the 1980s, Judith and I had a zillion conversations about architecture and she taught me how to say Italian words better if not always correctly. Her attendance at Art Libraries Society of North America (ARLIS/NA) was mostly early on but she continued to attend ARLIS/Western New York meetings. Margaret Webster and I remember riding with her in the orange VW to various ARLIS/WNY meetings. At one ARLIS/NA annual conference (I think it was NYC in 1978), there was a panel with publishers. Judith stood up and asked the Abrams representative why they didn't put dates in their books. He said something about wanting them to appear new when they were on the shelf for Christmas presents and didn't realize how troublesome it was for librarians. As far as I know, Abrams has put the date in all their books since then. I'll miss Judith a lot. ̃ Sherman Clarke, New York University Libraries [Reprinted with permission from the Art Libraries Society Discussion List (ARLIS-L)] Judith Holliday Thank you, Sherman, for posting the very nice memoriam of Judith. I, too, was at Cornell from 1969-1971, although I do not recall meeting you, Sherman, even though I was working for the Library system, but in a rather lowly position, first in the law library as a stacks person and then in the reserve room at the undergraduate library. I was there doing work as a Conscientious Objector. When I transferred to the undergraduate library in July, as I recall, I worked with Judith, as she was head of that department, before she moved across the Quad to the Art and Architecture building to become Head of the Library there. She was a terrific boss. Although I came to Cornell with an M.A. in art history, she showed me another side of library work, which eventually sowed the seeds to my later decision to move from a career in academic art history to art librarianship, which I did after getting my Ph.D. in the former and then my M.L.S. I fondly remember her sense of humor (she named her VW after a character in one of Wagner's operas), her broad interests, and our shared involvement with musical theatre. Although sadness is a part of everyone's life, the phrase that comes to mind when I think of Judith is "joie de vivre." When I returned to Ithaca in 1994 for a short visit, I was fortunate to find Judith in her office. No longer supervisor and boss, but colleagues, we reminisced and shared professional tales. As email and the Web became an increasing phenomenon, we stayed in touch on a more regular basis. I'll miss her, as I know others will and do. Her requests for recipients of contributions in her memory say much about her gentleness, humility, social responsibility, and caring for others. ̃ Jeffrey Weidman, Spencer Art Reference Library, the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, KS [Reprinted with permission from the Art Libraries Society Discussion List (ARLIS-L)] Judith Holliday Remembered Judith Holliday was just about the first person I met when I came to graduate school at Cornell in 1986. She was a font of knowledge—and source of information—on myriad topics, but especially architecture, whose new books and journals she lovingly and meticulously cataloged for many years in the Newsletter of the Society of Architectural Historians. As a graduate student I looked forward to every visit to the Fine Arts Library; never once was Judith too busy for a lively exchange of opinion, a valuable suggestion, or a good laugh—most of the time all three! Working for and with her was no different. Judith was “theatrical” in the best sense of the term: everything was more fun when her irrepressible self was around. And if life occasionally threw a curve ball or an infelicitous line her way, the moment didn’t last long. She was soon moving ahead to the next exciting adventure: a trip to India, a part in a new play, a dash to see the Yankees, or to sound the notes of her Magic Flute. Every day at lunch she would work the New York Times crossword puzzle, and sometimes she would stop at the reference desk to clear up a point or two. Rarely could I be of much assistance, for Judith was a master—nay, doctor—of the art of puzzling. But on one occasion the answer to the clue was “bourne” and—due to a misspent youth memorizing English poetry—I was able to provide the answer. We talked that day about Tennyson and the line from his “Crossing the Bar”—“For tho’ from out our bourne of time and place”—and how it had always seemed to me one of the most difficult to remember because of its syntax. Not so another notable use of the word, in Hamlet’s soliloquy: “Death, the undiscover’d country from whose bourn [sic] no traveller returns.” So Judith, to whatever bourne your travels now have taken you, know that you are missed, that we cherish all you were and all you did in this life, so much less brilliant without you. ̃ Rebecca Davidson, former Acting Fine Arts Librarian and Visual Collections Archivist in the Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections Credits: Kaleidoscope is published bi-monthly except June and July by Cornell University Library. Editor: Elizabeth Teskey, Photography: Cynthia Lange, Layout: Carla DeMello and Jenn Colt-Demaree |
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Adam came to CUL’s Library Technical Services in August 2000 at the height of the tsunami of electronic journals that swept into the academy. CUL, like other libraries, was able to buy electronic journal packages faster than technical staff could make them accessible to our users, so Tech Services hired Adam as its first Information Technology Librarian to automate its electronic-resource processing to keep pace. Batch processing of e-resource records was one of the success stories of Adam and Tech Services in the post-Y2K years and today batch processing of catalog records is routine at CUL in a way that is unmatched by the majority of Cornell’s peers.
