Elizabeth Dupuis retired as a top leader at the UC Berkeley Library earlier this year. But the university hasn’t left her.
This month, the former senior associate university librarian received the prestigious Chancellor’s Distinguished Service Award. One of the campus’s top honors, the award recognizes exceptional faculty, staff, and organizations for their outstanding service outside of teaching or research.
Across her 23 years at the Library, Dupuis has made an indelible mark. She provided leadership for the Mellon Library/Faculty Fellowship for Undergraduate Research, a grant-funded project that transformed the learning experience by bringing hands-on research into classrooms — first at UC Berkeley and then around the world. With a steady hand, she helped bring to life the radically student-centric Carol T. Christ Center for Connected Learning at Moffitt Library. And she braided her compassion, knowledge, and logistical acumen to lead the Library’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic, serving the needs of the Library’s staff and adapting services to support UC Berkeley’s scholarly community during an unprecedented time.
In presenting the award, University Librarian Suzanne Wones commended Dupuis for her “steady and strategic service mindset,” advocacy for Library staff and the campus community, and her “fierce devotion” to students.
“Whether she was managing nearly half of the Library’s workforce as senior associate university librarian or personally retrieving books to be digitized, Beth’s career was defined by a rare blend of institutional wisdom and hands-on commitment to service,” Wones said.
In her nominating letter, Gisèle Tanasse, service design librarian and assistant head of the Library’s Instruction Services Division, said that working with, and learning from, Dupuis has been “one of the greatest honors” of her career.
Tanasse lauded Dupuis for “daring to dream with abandon” — even amid great challenges. Among the hallmarks of Dupuis’ leadership, Tanasse said, was her “collaborative momentum” in keeping the Library evolving, owing to “her brilliance, her calming wisdom and unflappability, her own internal anchor which makes it possible for her to boldly navigate the choppiest of waters with courage.”