The Bancroft Library Welcomes John Wenzler

Lynne Rowley: 5/11/50 to 1/21/00

Progress for Library School Oral History Series

Cathy Lu Thanks SDC for Help Along the Path to Her MLIS

LAUC-B Panel: State of Information Services and Libraries at the University of California, Berkeley

The LUST Report - In Short

Ted Joans Poetry Reading

Lunch Poems Features Nobel Prize Winner Milosz

Appointments

Library Milestones

Lynne Rowley: 5/11/50 to 1/21/00

It is with regret and sadness that I announce the passing, in Santa Cruz, of Lynne Rowley, Administrative Assistant in the Library Human Resources Department for eleven years.

Lynne began her library career in 1987 and left LHRD for a promotion at the Department of English in 1998. Lynne touched every career employee as the person who kept track of our sick leave and vacation accruals and balances. She helped with many a library party, and at the beginning of her career was responsible for the weekly editions of CU NEWS!

Laurie Pangelina and Juana Loza were among Lynne's last visitors. I know she was comforted by their presence and aware that her Library family cared.

Lynne requested that there be no services to commemorate her passing. She asked that she be cremated and that her ashes be scattered at Tahoe. In lieu of flowers the family is requesting donations be made to the Hospice Caring Project of Santa Cruz. I am sure that many in the Library mourn with us and with Lynne's loving family.

Janice Dost
Head, LHRD

Progress for Library School Oral History Series

The Library School Oral History Series, now in its second year at ROHO, received a significant boost in December when the library school's alumni board voted unanimously to donate $5,000 to the project. In taking this step, the alumni provided critical funding to the series and also put ROHO in a better position to seek support from other sources.

Meanwhile, interviews have begun with Fay M. Blake, the sixth narrator for the series. A USC-trained librarian who also holds a Ph.D. in English from UCLA, Dr. Blake taught at Berkeley's School of Librarianship from 1971 until her retirement in 1984. She coordinated the school's field studies program, which helped students set up libraries in jails and other innovative settings. Throughout her career she was a strong advocate for public libraries, focusing especially on how to increase services to those who need them most.

Other individuals interviewed last year for the series are Grete Fruge Cubie, Fredric J. Mosher, J. Periam Danton, Flora Elizabeth Reynolds, and Patrick G. Wilson. These interviews have been transcribed and are at various stages of the editorial process. Virginia Pratt, librarian of the former Library School Library for many years, politely declined to participate in the project.

As interviewer and editor for the series, I attended the California Library Association annual meeting in November, where I was an invited speaker on a panel addressing the topic "Preserving Your Library's History: Problems and Prospects." My presentation offered some general information about oral history methods and made judicious use of excerpts from the interviews.

Since its inception, the series has benefited from the strong guidance of the advisory committee: Michael K. Buckland, Julia J. Cooke, Mary Kay Duggan, Debra L. Hansen, Robert D. Harlan, J.R.K. Kantor, Corliss Lee, and Charlotte Nolan. ROHO also acknowledges the Pat Farquar Memorial Fund and its benefactor, Morley S. Farquar, whose support allowed the project to begin.

As in the past, ROHO welcomes ideas for the series from the library staff and graduates of the school (roho@library or 2-7395). We look forward to making the first few series interviews available this year.

Laura McCreery
Project Director
Library School Oral History Series

Cathy Lu Thanks SDC for Help Along the Path to Her MLIS

Hi, I was an Interlibrary Loan Supervisor at the Interlibrary Services, and I am now the Operations Manager at the Anthropology Library.

I was accepted to the MLIS (Master in Library and Information Science) program at SJSU (San Jose State University) in the Fall of 1996. I have been working full time and could handle only two classes each semester. I was glad that I finally finished all the classes in Spring 99. I had the whole Summer 99 for my thesis research and registered a three-credit thesis in Fall 99. You may want to know what my research topic is. Are you ready for this? It is a long topic: "Asian Student-User Behavior in Academic Libraries: A Case Study of Indochinese Students at San Jose State University and University of California, Berkeley," and I have just finished it. I received funding up to $500 each fiscal year from SDC (Staff Development Committee) for a period of four years (wow, a lot of money, $2,000?) when I was in the MLIS program.

The funds were very helpful and it meant a lot to me. I might not have been able to finish the program without this aid. Thanks to the members of the SDC (Staff Development Committee), I have had the opportunity to finish the program. I would like to express my appreciation to them for the SDC funding, to my supervisors and department heads for their support and encouragement, and to the members of the Librarian's Office, Library Human Resources, and Library Business Office for the administrative work. Thanks also for giving me the opportunity to share my study and experience with the UCB staff in the CU News.

I would like to let the UCB library staff know that there are opportunities for you. If I can make it, you of course can do it, too, if you want to. For more information, please visit the SDC web site: http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/AboutLibrary/sdc.html

Cathy Lu
The George & Mary Foster Anthropology Library

Upcoming Event: State of Information Services and Libraries at the University of California, Berkeley

We are near the brink of a new millenium. Some of us celebrated January 1, 2000 as the new millenium. Some will wait until 2001. An astronomy professor says that with all the changes and deletions in the old Julian and Gregorian calendars the true millenium actually began some 2 or more years ago. A physics professor has recently started a stir with the assertion that "time" does not exist, there is only change. However we define it, we are creatures of time, and this event seems significant to us.

Universities and libraries are looking closely at their pasts and attempting to plot their futures. The latter part of the 1900's have been marked by a technological revolution in communications and information technology. As information professionals, we wonder what is in store in 2000 and the next decade. In this program, three Berkeley speakers will help us take stock and to imagine the future.

State of Information Services and Libraries at the University of California, Berkeley
LAUC-B Research & Professional Development Committee Program

A panel discussion with:
Gerald Lowell, University Librarian
Robert Berring. Walter Perry Johnson Professor of Law
and Director of the Boalt Library
John McCredie, Associate Vice Chancellor, Information Systems
and Technology


Monday, January 31
Toll Room, Alumni House
9:00 - 11:00 am

Diane Fortner
RPDC

The LUST Report - In Short

Now that we've gotten your attention, we'd like to fill you in on the progress of the Library User Survey Team (aka L.U.S.T.). The team is composed of Suzanne Calpestri (Anthropology), Bob Liu (Business Services), Nick Robinson (Public Health), Charlotte Rubens (Interlibrary Services) and Co-Chairs, Pat Davitt Maughan (Teaching Library) and Dennis Lieu (Faculty, College of Engineering). The team has been asked to design and administer a campuswide, statistically valid, and reliable survey of faculty and graduate students to measure campus satisfaction with library services. Plans are to include undergraduates and key academic personnel in a subsequent survey.

The team is currently planning a formal presentation of the LUST Report to Roundtable in April. An all staff Early Bird is being planned to present the survey to staff for comment in September 2000. The survey itself should be in the mail to faculty and graduate students by October 30, 2000.

Staff are invited to consult "The LUST Report - in greater detail" and/or to contact members of the team for additional information and detail. We are also planning to provide periodic updates in CU News.

Pat Davitt Maughan
on behalf of the Library User Survey Team

Ted Joans Poetry Reading

You are invited to hear Ted Joans, who will read on 1 February at 4:30 pm in 223 Moses Hall. This reading is in homage to poet Langston Hughes, since February 1 is Langston's birthday. The event also launches Black History Month 2000 on the Berkeley campus. Ted will be introduced by Ishmael Reed.

The event is sponsored by The Bancroft Library and the Department of African American Studies. A reception follows the reading.

A bit of context: The Bancroft Library is the repository of the Ted Joans papers.

Phyllis Bischof and Anthony Bliss

Lunch Poems Features Nobel Prize Winner Milosz

Czeslaw Milosz, Professor Emeritus of Slavic Languages and Literature at UC Berkeley
Winner of the 1980 Nobel Prize of Literature
Lunch Poems, A Series of Readings
Under the Direction of Professor Robert Hass
Morrison Library
12:10-12:50 pm

Support for this series is provided in part by The Library. For more information, see
http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/MORR/poetry.html#cm

Appointments

January 2000
• Shannon Monroe, LA III, hired at ILL,
• Lisa Sanchez, LAII, hired at BIOS
• Kathleen Zvanovec, AA I, hired at ROHO