People in the News

Ann-Christe Galloway

Ed. note: To ensure that your personnel news is considered for publication, write to Ann-Christe Galloway, production editor, C&RL News, at email: agalloway@ala.org.

Mary E. Helms, associate professor, Strategic Initiatives, of the McGoogan Library of Medicine at the University of Nebraska Medical Center, was given the Midcontinental Chapter of the Medical Library Association’s Outstanding Achievement Award.

Duncan Stewart, special collections cataloger/liaison to the School of Library and Information Science at the University of Iowa Libraries, has been given the Arthur Benton University Librarian’s Award for Excellence. The $1,500 award will support the recipient’s professional development activities, research projects, or publications.

Appointments

Kristine Alpi has been named university librarian at Oregon Health and Science University (OHSU). Alpi leads the OHSU Library team’s strategic engagement in knowledge technology and informatics, including data sciences, educational outreach, information literacy, digital archives and special collections, and research communication and analytics. Before joining OHSU, Alpi was director of the William R. Kenan, Jr. Library of Veterinary Medicine. Earlier in her career, she served as associate library director at Weill Cornell Medical Library in New York.

Deb Morley has been named director of the Wolfgram Memorial Library at Widener University. Previously, Morley was director of data and digital stewardship at Drexel University. Morley now oversees all library staff who work to support undergraduate and graduate programs offered on the university’s main campus, develops online courses and other innovative teaching and learning strategies, as well as hosts university archives. Morley also works to foster collaboration between the library and academic and administrative partners across campus.

Alora Bauer has been named student success librarian at the University of Arkansas-Fort Smith.

Lesley Brown has joined California State University-Sacramento’s University Library as head of user services.

Jana Brubaker has been appointed associate dean for collections, technical services, and digital scholarship in the Northern Illinois University Libraries.

Sarah Cain has been named curator for rare books and special collections in the Northern Illinois University Libraries.

Suzanna Conrad has been appointed associate dean for digital technologies and resource management at California State University-Sacramento’s University Library.

Samantha Dodd has been appointed curator of the Archives of Women of the Southwest, DeGolyer Library, at Southern Methodist University.

Emily DuGranrut is now the National Historical Publications and Records Commission Project Archivist (nine-month appointment).

David Gibbs has been appointed head of collection management services at California State University-Sacramento’s University Library.

Jennifer Gunter King is now director of the Stuart A. Rose Manuscript, Archives, and Rare Book Library at Emory University.

Christine Jensen is now head of public services of the DeGolyer Library at Southern Methodist University.

Carl Leak is now health sciences librarian at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill.

Brad Matthies has been appointed associate dean of the Foley Center Library at Gonzaga University.

Sam McClellan is now instruction coordinator at California State University-Sacramento’s University Library.

Suzanne Schadl is now chief of the Hispanic Division at the Library of Congress.

Leanne VandeCreek has been appointed associate dean for public services in the Northern Illinois University Libraries.

Bailey Wallace has been named customer experience manager at the University of Colorado-Denver’s Auraria Library.

Chelsea Wyman has been named outreach librarian at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse’s Murphy Library.

Neda Zeraatkar has joined Emory University’s Woodruff Library as the Middle East and Islamic Studies librarian.

Retirements

Cliff Haka, director of libraries at Michigan State University (MSU) since 1997, has retired. Haka joined MSU Libraries in 1982 as information librarian and later became the head of the information/reference department (1985–87). He went on to become assistant director for access services (1987–91) and then assistant director for administrative services (1991–97). Haka committed to an aggressive program to encourage students use of the library. This effort included physical upgrades of study space, the introduction of the Cyber Cafe, expanded hours of operation to 24 hours a day, five days a week, and the addition of hundreds of public access computers. Haka also increased funding to support librarian efforts in professional and scholarly activities, and beginning librarian salaries were increased to continue to attract “the best and the brightest.” A library faculty evaluation system that directly parallels the system used by the teaching/research faculty was also implemented. In 2000, Haka played an instrumental role in the development of MeLCat, the State of Michigan’s eLibrary catalog and resource-sharing system that now includes more than 450 libraries across the state. Ten years into his role as director of libraries, Haka pushed for more librarian positions, pointing to the significant impact of the work that librarians were doing to carry out the academic mission of the university, particularly in the areas of instruction and big data. Thanks to his advocacy, the provost committed to 20 new librarian positions, which entailed four new hires each year over five years. Haka prioritized and supported the construction of new spaces for collaboration and learning, such the creation of Hollander MakeCentral, the relocation of the Special Collections Reading Room to the first floor, and the construction of the new Digital Scholarship Lab.