Please join me in congratulating Elizabeth Byrne, Head of the Environmental Design Library, on the occasion of her retirement on June 30, 2011. Elizabeth has headed the Environmental Design Library since her arrival in Berkeley nearly 27 years ago and has a long and distinguished career at UC Berkeley, preceded by librarian positions at the University of Cincinnati, San Diego Public Library, Detroit Public Library, and the University of Louisville.  She built the Environmental Design Library?s collection to become one of the strongest architecture collections in the United States and also helped design, plan, and execute the Environmental Design Library?s 1999-2002 moves, seismic upgrade, and remodel.

She has edited a number of books including San Francisco Architecture and Design on the Edge: A Century of Teaching Architecture at the University of California, Berkeley, 1903-2003. She helped create the first Library Guidelines for the National Architectural Accrediting Board in 1991. She was awarded Berkeley?s Distinguished Librarian Award in 1991, the Council of Planning Librarians? Holway R. Jones Distinguished Service Award in 1997, and named a Mellon Library Fellow for Teaching and Learning for 2005-2006.   A widely respected member of the university community, Elizabeth has mentored dozens of young librarians at Berkeley, and through the Association of Architecture School Librarians, the Association of Architectural Librarians, and the Art Libraries Society of North America. She won the Chancellor's Distinguished Service Award in 2011.

David Eifler has been appointed Interim Head effective July 1, 2011, for a 12-month period. David joined ENVI in 2007 as the Reference and Instruction Librarian, and became the Planning and Instruction Librarian last July. He has served as the ILS (OskiCat) Training Coordinator and on numerous library committees and working groups. Prior to becoming a librarian, David was Senior Manager for Biotech Planning and Operations at Bayer Corporation. He holds a Master of City Planning degree from UC Berkeley.

Please join me in congratulating Elizabeth and David.

Isabel Stirling
and Library Administration

Associate University Librarian Isabel Stirling is retiring this summer after twelve years of leading Berkeley libraries. As Director of Public Services and Head of Subject Specialty Libraries, her hands were always full. She covered our alphabet from Art History to Zoology, merged and surged collections across campus and beyond the campus, and was the go-to person when anyone using our libraries could not understanding how the delicate machinery worked. Everyone who is saying goodbye to her this month will have an image of Isabel getting something unstuck, often through an adjustment that no one else had thought of.

If you wanted to work in a great research library when everything was about to change, 1999 was the right time to come to Berkeley. Of the eight science libraries Isabel Stirling originally headed, six have been rebuilt and revitalized, and planning is underway for the other two. Directing eight libraries was once thought of a feat, in recent years she took on even more. Isabel helped us with troubles (searching Pathfinder for example) that we quickly moved beyond. She played a valuable role as Berkeley and peer institutions engaged libraries in Asia. She has been a stalwart of the US-China Library Conference.

Isabel's engaement with Japanese culture is known to us all. She published a historical study, Zen Pioneer: The Life and Works of Ruth Fuller Sasaki in 2006.

Isabel is retiring to Oregon, where she spent half of her professional career. She looks forward to seeing well wishers at the appreciation party on June 15, 2011 in the Morrison Library.

I am pleased to announce that Associate University Librarian Beth Dupuis is leading transition planning.

Tom Leonard
University Librarian

Linda Norton, a senior editor at the Bancroft Library's Regional Oral History Office, has just published The Public Gardens: Poems and History. It is described as a "memoir of place (Boston, New York, Oakland and San Francisco) and of the commons (gardens, streets, subways, marriage and family, libraries), a documentary (with lyrics) of a life lived in, around, and for books." Norton's other creative works include a chapbook, collages, and a collaboration with composer Eve Beglarian. For more about The Public Gardens, visit here.

The Environmental Design Library is sad to announce the departure of Mia Jaeggli. She was our Technical Services Work Leader since October 2007, during which time she brought order to ENVI's technical processing, documenting and improving procedures along the way. She also served on the reference desk, provided bibliographic instruction sessions to classes, co-curated an exhibit, developed an online exhibits site, and created a research guide. Mia chaired the Staff Development Committee, served on the Public Services council, and numerous other committees and task forces. We'll greatly miss her, professionally and personally.

Mia is leaving to be a full-time artist. Her last day was March 31, 2011. Please refer questions about ENVI technical services to Dori Hsiao.

Elizabeth Byrne, Head
Environmental Design Library

Enola Wooster was born October 29, 1913 in New Britain, Connecticutt. She attended kindergarten in Columbia, Missouri; grade school in Medford Hillside, Massachusetts; and high school and college in Oberlin, Ohio. Her father was a professor in each of those cities. She graduated from Oberlin College in 1934 with a major in History of Art and a minor in Classics. Throughout her life she continued to study languages, literature, art and culture.

She worked in offices for a few years, briefly at the University of Chicago, then in Connecticut, mostly at GE. Then she worked for a year at Columbia's School of Library Services.

In July 1945 she was hired as a librarian in the Catalog Department at UC Berkeley. She cataloged books in major Western languages and city and regional planning books. In 1955 she married Edward Hicks, a civil service employee of the U.S. Navy. He died in 1980. She retired December 31, 1971 after working for thirty years in the Catalog Dept.

Enola traveled all over the world. She learned Russian, German and Spanish. Whenever she went to Mexico she stayed, as a paying guest, with the same family.

In December 1986 Enola sold her home and moved to Piedmont Gardens in Oakland. She often played the piano for Vespers there. She lived there for 24 years. At Piedmont Gardens Enola was the librarian, presiding over the book collection on the top floor of one of the buildings. At Enola's request, Camille Holser brought Enola a photocopy of the LC classification system outline, so she could keep track of the Piedmont Gardens books by call numbers.

She read biographies, histories, and British mysteries; read the New York Times and the San Francisco Chronicle daily; played cribbage and Scrabble; and watched PBS programs on TV.

In the autumn of 2010 Enola broke her hip. She tried to recover but developed pneumonia. She kept up her spirits by listening to fine classical music, opera, and National Public Radio news. Enola's godchildren, Virginia and Fred, children of her dear friend Elizabeth DeVilbiss, met Enola's every need.

Enola's brother had two daughters, Leslie Wooster Black and Chris, who visited with Enola at the end. They read to her, listened to music with her, looked at pictures, told family stories and hugged a lot. With Enola's godchildren, they were with Enola during her final days. She died January 10, 2011. On February 22, Enola's ashes were placed in the Chapel of the Chimes in Oakland. Family members and close friends attended the ceremony, which included music and remembrances.

Camille Holser
Technical Services