It’s with a heavy heart that I write to tell you that Beth McGonagle has succumbed to the lure of family and friends on the east coast. Her last day in the Library Development Office will be this Friday, July 18. She has accepted a position at a local technical school (MIT) as Associate Director of the Alumni Fund, Events and Donor Recognition. Although she will miss Berkeley and the Bay Area, her fourteenth-month-old son Francis will enjoy having two sets of grandparents closer to hand. Her incredible skill at handling the myriad details involved with event coordination, and her tact and graciousness in responding to and anticipating the needs of the Library’s most generous donors, have greatly aided our fundraising efforts over the past five years. We will miss you, Beth!

Dave Duer
Director of Development and External Relations

The Staff Development Committee is pleased to announce the return of the SDC Recognition Award. This award doubles the winner’s annual SDC allotment, funds that are to be used for professional development opportunities like workshops and conferences. The SDC Recognition Award is an excellent opportunity to recognize your coworkers and colleagues for their contributions to their unit and to the Library.

All Library staff are invited to nominate an SDC-eligible employee. Nominations must be submitted by 5:00 p.m. on Friday, August 22. Please read through the nomination form for more information.
<http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/Staff/SDC/SDCAwardNominationForm.doc>

Not sure if a certain Library employee is covered by SDC? Take a look at this list of SDC-eligible title codes and review the eligibility guidelines.
<http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/LHRD/SDCtitles.html>
<http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/Staff/SDC/guidelines.html>

The committee looks forward to receiving your nomination! If you have any questions, please contact Sandy Tesch, Staff Development Committee Chair, at 2-9604 or stesch@library.berkeley.edu.

Sandy Tesch
SDC Chair

The Institute of Transportation Studies Library is pleased to announce that Kendra Levine has accepted a one-year appointment as Reference Librarian. Some of you have already met Kendra as she worked in the library as a student employee in 2004 and was hired as the Circulation Manager in 2005. A graduate of UC Berkeley with a degree in History and German, Kendra has completed coursework for the Master of Science in Library and Information Science at Drexel University and will receive that degree and a Master of Science in Information Systems at the end of the fall semester. Kendra is very interested in applications of technology and completed a redesign of the ITSL website (http://library.its.berkeley.edu/) last month. She will direct public services and will have responsibilities for reference, collection development, outreach to ITS units at other campuses and indexing.

Rita Evans
Library Director
Institute of Transportation Studies

The life and work of Anne Lipow, library instruction and Internet pioneer and the first head of Library Instructional Services at UC Berkeley, are honored in a new festschrift. Several of the contributors have a Berkeley connection. Technology in Libraries: Essays in Honor of Anne Grodzins Lipow contains 10 essays, whose authors include Roy Tennant, the volume's instigator and editor ("Talking Tech: Explaining Technical Topics to a Non-Technical Audience"), Ellen Meltzer ("The Teaching Library: Rethinking Library Services"), and John Kupersmith ("Is Usability the New B.I.?"). Several of Anne's Berkeley colleagues are quoted in the volume, which also reproduces illustrations done for Anne's projects by Gary Handman. There is also a bibliography of her writings. This book has been published simultaneously in print and as a free web download. For more information, see:
< http://www.techinlibraries.com/ >

John Kupersmith
Reference Librarian

Two recently retired Berkeley librarians, Suzanne Calpestri and Gary Peete, have received the title “Librarian – Emeritus,” as of July 1, 2008. Approved by Chancellor Birgeneau, this honor is an indication of the esteem in which they are held by their colleagues and on the campus, as well as by their professional community nationally. The Library congratulates Suzanne and Gary on their distinguished careers and service to the campus community.

Tom Leonard
University Librarian