PEOPLE IN THE NEWS
C&RL News, July/August 2006
Vol. 69, No. 7
by Ann-Christe Galloway
Elaine Coppola, librarian for government information, political science and international relations in the Social Sciences and Area Studies Department at Syracuse University Library has received the 2008 Syracuse University Library Distinguished Service Award. Coppola began her career at Syracuse University Library in 1979 as a catalog librarian technical services, a position she held for the next ten years. She volunteered at the reference desk from 1984 until 1989, when she transferred to public services and joined the reference department. Coppola served in a number of key roles in the ensuing period, including social sciences reference bibliographer, reference desk manager, and head of reference from 1999 through 2003. She assumed her present position in Social Sciences and Area Studies in 2005. Coppola’s commitment to SU Library is also evident in her extensive record of service, serving on or chairing library committees ranging from the current MetaLib Committee, to the Electronic Resources Advisory Group, the Library Cabinet, the Collection Development Committee, various search committees, SULA, and many others. Coppola was previously honored by the Eastern NY Chapter of ACRL with its Librarian of the Year award in 1996 for her contributions to that organization. She has also been involved in a number of ALA committees and activities over the years.
Duane E. Webster, retired executive director of Association of Research Libraries (ARL), was presented with the ARL Distinguished Service Award in honor of his outstanding 38-year career as an advocate for research libraries. The ARL Board of Directors awarded Webster the honorary title executive director emeritus, a first in the 75-year history of the association. Webster retired June 30, 2008.
Appointments
Charles B. Lowry has been named executive director of the Association of Research Libraries (ARL) Board of Directors. Lowry is currently dean of libraries at the University of Maryland-College Park, but will step down from his deanship and take a leave of absence to lead ARL for the next three years. He will then return to teaching and research in the university’s iSchool, where he holds a tenured professorship.
Mark Stengel has been named director of library/learning resources and distance education at Cuesta College in San Luis Obispo, California. Prior to this position he spent seven years at California State University-San Marcos, first as collections coordinator (2001–05), then as associate dean (2005–08.)
Jim Bongiovanni has joined Temple University as systems librarian.
Lauren Corbett has been appointed head of resource services at Wake Forest University’s Z. Smith Reynolds Library.
Myntha Cuffy has been appointed residency program reference and instruction librarian at the University of Iowa Libraries.
Thuy-Anh Dang is now media resources cataloger at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill.
Janet Dombrowski has joined the University of Wyoming Libraries as head of the Brinkerhoff Earth Information Resources Center.
Rebecca Fenning is now the manuscripts librarian at UCLA’s William Andrews Clark Memorial Library.
Christy Groves has been appointed coordinator of user services at Middle Tennessee State University’s James E. Walker Library.
Christa V. Hardy has been appointed to a library thesis/dissertation fellowship at Middle Tennessee State University’s James E. Walker Library.
James Honour is now Wyoming liaison librarian at the University of Wyoming for the NN/LM MidContinental Region.
Graham Howard has been named humanities and social sciences librarian at Portland State University.
Maria Anna Jankowska has been appointed social sciences librarian at the Charles E. Young Research Library at UCLA.
Emily King has been appointed coordinator of e-learning services at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill.
Ellen Marks has resigned as medical library director at Wayne State University’s Shiffman Medical Library and Learning Resources Center to take a position at the university’s library and information science program, where she will be developing online courses and doing research.
Paul Park has joined Illinois State University as Web services librarian.
Sandra Phoenix has been named director of the Historically Black Colleges and Universities Library Alliance.
Apryl Price is now electronic resources librarian at Texas A&M University.
Thomas E. Raffensperger is the new assistant university librarian for public services at Portland State University.
Anne Reuland has been named director of administrative services for the Loyola University Libraries.
Chris Underwood is the new head of systems at Illinois State University Library.
Jason Vance has been appointed information literacy librarian at Middle Tennessee State University’s James E. Walker Library.
John VanSteen is now director of information literacy at Five Towns College in Dix Hill, New York.
Carol E. Vreeland has been reassigned to the position of associate director of the William Rand Kenan, Jr. Library of Veterinary Medicine. Vreeland had been serving on an interim basis as reference librarian for Veterinary Medicine for the past year.
Retirements
Paul M. Gherman has retired as Vanderbilt University librarian. During Gherman’s 12 years on campus, he helped create new collaborations between the library and external groups, such as the Southeastern Research Libraries and the Nashville Area Library Alliance. Gherman also led the effort to develop the Vanderbilt Television News Archive, the Global Music Archive, the Electronic Tools and Ancient Near East Archives project (ETANA). Under his leadership, the Vanderbilt library added its 3-millionth volume. In addition, he was instrumental in the development of Discover Library, the local version of Primo, a computer service that enables library users to locate and access quickly an expanding variety of resources—print, digital, and electronic. Gherman fostered the development of the Cooperative Collection Management Trust, developed by RLG and OCLC designed to address preservation and storage needs in academic libraries. In 2005 he won the ALA Hugh C. Atkinson Award. Gherman served as president of the Association of Southeastern Research Libraries (ASERL) from 1999 to 2001 and was a member of the Advisory Committee on the Records of Congress. He has been a board member of the Southeastern Library Network (SOLINET) and the Online Computer Library Center (OCLC). Gherman was the university librarian at Kenyon College and Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University before joining Vanderbilt.
Ronald R. Powell has retired from Wayne State University’s Library and Information Science (LIS) Program. Powell joined the LIS Program in 1993 and served as interim director in 1999. Prior to joining Wayne State, he was assistant professor at the University of Michigan and associate professor, graduate studies director, and department chair at the University of Missouri-Columbia. Powell was a university librarian and college library director before becoming an LIS educator.
Deaths
Amy Knapp, 46, assistant university librarian at the University of Pittsburgh Library System, passed away after a long battle with cancer, May 
31, 2008. She started her career at ULS as an undergraduate student in the 1980s. She was a Semester at Sea librarian in 1990, and a database services librarian from 1992 to 1994. In 1994, she was promoted to coordinator of library instruction, a position that she remained in until 2002. At that time, she was appointed assistant university librarian, where she managed the Public Services Division and the Departmental Libraries. Along with her ULS duties, Knapp was a very popular adjunct professor at the School of Information Sciences. Most recently, Knapp coauthored a book along with ULS University Librarian Rush Miller, entitled Beyond Survival: Managing Academic Libraries in Transition. Knapp was an active member of ACRL and served on many association committees. She was an expert on government documents and presented at various workshops and conferences throughout the world, including China, Italy, France, and Australia. An award is also being established by ULS that will be given annually to a librarian who epitomized the ideals that Knapp lived by during her life. A scholarship is being established in Knapp’s name at the University of Pittsburgh-Titusville.
Ed. note: To ensure that your personnel news is considered for publication, write to Ann-Christe Galloway, production editor, C&RL News, 50 E. Huron St., Chicago, IL 60611-2795; e-mail: agalloway@ala.org; fax: (312) 280-2520.