Bella Shirman: A Unique Information Professional Retires

Holiday Party Thanks

EVENT

Fong Optometry Library Open House

Bill Wenz Remembered

HR ALERT

Computer Health Matters Workshop

Employee Development and Training January Classes

Library Employment Opportunities

Current Listings

Courtesy Listings

Bella Shirman: A Unique Information Professional Retires

Bella Shirman, Circulation Supervisor and Operations Manager at the Astronomy/Mathematics/Statistics Library since 1990, will retire from UCB on January 31, 2002 - ending a multi-faceted professional career in prestigious institutions in both the US and her homeland, Russia.

Bella graduated from the University of Moscow with a degree in Philology, and a secondary specialty in librarianship. She enjoyed a 20-year career as an editor in the Institute of Information at the Russian Academy of Sciences. Among other work, Bella edited volumes 4-9 of the series Itogi nauki i tekhniki. Seriia Avtomatika i radioelektronika which are at UCB in both Engineering and Doe collections, TJ212 I9.

When Bella and her husband Alex emigrated to the United States in 1983, she attended Mills College for a year to brush up on her computer and library skills. She then came to UC Berkeley, to work on the Russian Emigre Project, a focused program to acquire materials from two post-war waves of Russian emigration - 1917 and 1945. When that project ended, she taught course translations of political texts at the Monterey Language Institute which was then in San Francisco.

UCB was fortunate when Bella returned to full-time employment, first as technical processing assistant in the AMS Library, and later as head of circulation and operations manager in that same unit.

Known for extensive familiarity with the literature of mathematics, especially Russian mathematics, her intimate knowledge of the collections at AMS, the beautiful fresh flower bouquets from her garden that she often shared with the library, her gracious public service, and her warm supervision and guidance of AMS student library employees, Bella will be missed on many levels. We wish her well as she enters a well-earned retirement.

Ann Jensen, Librarian
Astronomy/Mathematics/Statistics Library

Holiday Party Thanks

Last year's holiday party was a happy event. An unexpected amalgam of cooperation, initiative, and unabashed individuality flourished as the planning and work of the party progressed. Though the party was given for our staff and students, in the end it became a celebration of the Library.

With many thanks to Adminstrative Group and our cheerful host, Tom Leonard, to the Holiday Chorus and the Recorder Ensemble, to the holiday favors crew (with special thanks to LHRD staff who turned painted balls every 30 minutes during the drying process), and to the many unknown staff and students who contributed to the unit cards.

Although it is impossible to list here everyone who made the party such a success, our thanks go out to you all.

Cam Olen
on behalf of the Staff Development Committee &
the Organizational Development Committee

Fong Optometry Library Open House

Ta Dummmmm [drum roll here....]

Finally! It's done!! The Fong Optometry Library renovation is complete!!!

Please join us for an open house on Friday morning, January 18, 8:30-10 a.m., to celebrate our Grand Opening. Coffee, tea and pastries will be served.

Bette Anton
Madalene Rodriguez
Michael Meacham
Fong Optometry Library

Bill Wenz Remembered

Friends of William Wenz, Library Personnel Director from 1964 till his retirement in 1988, are sad to learn of his death on December 8, 2001, after a brave struggle with lung cancer.

Bill was born in North Dakota in 1924, attended high school in St. Cloud, Minnesota, then was drafted into the Army during World War II. After the War, he enrolled at the University of Minnesota, where he earned a Bachelor's degree in English and American literature. He pursued graduate studies for a yeat, then left the University to begin his long career in personnel work. His first job took him to Morocco, where he served on a Marshall Plan project for the construction of air bases near Casablanca. It was there that he met the charming young Frenchwoman, Josiane, who became his wife. The Wenzes returned to Minneapolis, where their daughter, Patricia, was born; then moved on to the then-Territory of Alaska for a personnel assignment on the Dew Line, along the Arctic coast.

In 1957, they came to Berkeley, where Bill joined the University staff as an employment and personnel analyst in the Campus Personnel Office. In 1964, he transferred to the University Library to organize the first Library Personnel Office and become its Director.

Bill's tenure in that position encompassed a period of dramatic changes in the University's relationships with students and staff. He pioneered implementation of the Library's affirmative action program, and forstered and worked closely with Staff Development Committee. He served regularly on the Library Council's Personnel Committee, and was a member of the ad-hoc Hoos Committee which recommended University-wide policies affecting the status of non-Senate academic employees. Through all of the pressure of changing times, he maintained an "open door" policy, welcoming the expression of staff concerns. His fair-mindedness and his unassailable integrity helped Library stall and management resolve many problems. An irrepressible spark of humor beneath his calm and quiet manner often helped, too.

Bill's thirteen years of retirement were active and fulfilling. One of the great delights of these years was a growing passion for his wife's native land. His pleasure in planning trips to France with intensive reading and research was only rivalled by the joys of the actual journeys. He and Josiane were planning another such journey when his illness made travel impossible.

Bill maintained his courageous, clear-eyed, balanced outlook--and his twinkle of humor--to the end. His friends and colleagues share in the deep loss felt by his family.

Sheila Dowd
former AUL for Collection Development