march05c.indd Dawn Mueller P e o p l e i n t h e N e w s Jay Starratt, dean of library and informa­ tion services and associate vice chancellor for information technology at Southern Il­ linois University, received the Illinois Library Computer Systems Organization’s (ILSCSO) Distinguished Contributor Award. This award is presented in recognition of sustained con­ tributions to the organization. Jean Wilkins, recently retired director of the Illinois State Library, received the ILCSO Special Citation Award in recognition of her more than two decades of outstanding service and support for the ILCSO consortium and all Illinois libraries. Diane Dates Casey, author of “The Impact of Consortial Guidelines on the Cataloging of Internet Resources,” and Bernie Sloan, author of “Slicing the Membership Pie. The Bottom Line: Managing Library Finances,” became the first two recipients of the ILCSO Distinguished Publication Award for their publications that pertain to ILCSO consortium practices, ser­ vices, and resources. A p p o i n t m e n t s Deborah B. Dancik has been named uni­ versity librarian at Willamette University. She is currently the associate director of librar­ ies at the University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada, and will begin her new job later this year. Dancik was lauded for her 30 years of library experience, including managing public services and collections, adopting new technologies, and reorganizing and renovat­ ing library buildings. She has served on the ACRL Board of Directors and is a member of Ed. note: To ensure that your personnel news i s c o n s i d e re d fo r p u b l i c a t i o n , w r i t e t o D a w n Mueller, production editor, C&RL News, 50 E. Huron St., Chicago, IL 60611-2795; e -mail: dmueller@ ala.org; fax: (312) 280-2520. the editorial board of Portal: Libraries and the Academy. Her publications and presentations speak to topics from scholarly publishing to building management. “We are fortunate that Deborah Dancik has agreed to join us,” said Carol Long, dean of the College of Liberal Arts. “Our library and its staff play a crucial role in the academic experience of our students and the ongoing scholarship of our faculty. Deborah brings 30 years of library experience to Willamette. She understands the challenges and opportunities that face academic libraries today, and we look forward to her leadership.” Susan Avery has been appointed instruc­ tional service librarian at the University of Illinois Urbana­Champaign. Julie Chapman has been appointed as­ sistant professor in the library instructional services program at the University of Illinois­ Springfi eld. Jamie Coniglio is now head, reference department at George Mason University’s Fenwick Library. Mary P. (Mollie) Freier is now instruc­ tional services librarian chair at the University of Illinois­Springfi eld. Timothy H. Gatti is the new head of technical services at the University of Michi­ gan Law Library. Pearline Harmon has been appointed library coordinator for Tidewater Community College­Norfolk. Jane Hutton has been named electronic re­ sources librarian at West Chester University. Sharon H. Kerr is now electronic resourc­ es manager at George Mason University. Polly Khater has been appointed di­ rector, technical services at George Mason University. Debrorah B. Dancik March 2005 243 C&RL News Douglas King is now special materials cat­ aloger at the University of South Carolina. Nuala Bennett Koetter has been appoint­ ed head of digital services and development at the University of Illinois Urbana­Champaign. Andrew Lee is now reference and instruc­ tion librarian at George Mason University’s Johnson Center Library. Patti Lee is now reference and instruction­ al services librarian at Agnes Scott College. Dorothy Lockaby has been appointed coordinator of reference and instruction ser­ vices at George Mason University’s Johnson Center Library. Travis McDade is now law reference librarian at the University of Illinois Urbana­ Champaign. March 2005 Advertisers AARP 170 ACM 192 American Chemical Society 224 Annual Reviews 188 ARL 177, 212, 216-217 Chemical Abstracts Services cover 2 CHOICE 165 Columbia University Press 240 CyberTools 202 EBSCO 230 Economist Intelligence Unit 206 Educational Testing Services cover 4 Elsevier 234 Endeavor Information Systems 218 Facts on File 238 Hoover’s 232 H.W. Wilson 237 Iimage Retrieval 197 INSPEC 171 Intelex 244 McGraw-Hill 248 Nature Publishing 162 OECD 242 Oxford University Press 249 Project Muse 198 R.R. Bowker 178, 191 RLG 161, 213 Sage Publications 166-167 Scarecrow Press 247 Scopus 223 TechBooks 172 Thomson Gale 229 Thomson Scientifi c cover 3 Janalyn Moss has been appointed refer­ ence librarian at the University of Iowa. George D. Oberle, III, is now multimedia and liaison librarian for interdisciplinary pro­ grams at George Mason University. Lene Palmer has been appointed head, collection development and preservation of­ ficer at George Mason University. Ann Pettingill has accepted the posi­ tion of associate university librarian at Old Dominion University. Lois H. Radford has been named library coordinator for Tidewater Community Col­ lege­Chesapeake. Pamela Salela has been appointed as­ sistant professor in the library instructional services program at the University of Illinois­ Springfi eld. Nancy Seamans has been appointed director, research and instructional services at the University of Iowa. Bill Sees is now the head of circulation and support services at Columbia University Libraries. Jen Stevens is now humanities refer­ ence and liaison librarian at George Mason University. John Wagstaff has been appointed head of the music library at the University of Illinois Urbana­Champaign. Gwen L. Williams has been appointed reference librarian at the University of Mis­ souri­Kansas City Libraries. R e t i r e m e n t s Larry X. Besant, director of libraries and media services at Morehead State University (MSU), has retired. Besant, who has been with MSU since 1985, lead Camden­Carroll Library from the era of paper files to automation, with its first automated system, LS/2000 in 1987. Under his leadership, MSU became the fi rst state school in Kentucky to have a Web­based catalog, and he helped create the Kentucky Virtual Library and make databases and other electronic resources available statewide. Prior 245 C&RL News to his service at MSU, Besant was director of the Linda Hall Library, assistant director for public service at the Ohio State University library, and assistant director for technical service at the University of Houston library. Besant has been active in state and national organizations, having served as the president of the Kentucky chapter of SLA twice, and chaired the State Assisted Academic Library Council of Kentucky from 1989­1990 and 1997­2000. Charles T. Cullen, president and librarian of the Newberry Library in Chicago, has retired. Cullen has been president of the Newberry Library since 1986, forging an era of fi nancial stability, academic accomplishment, and pub­ lic access. During his tenure, the Newberry Li­ brary has seen its endowment increased from $27 million to $63 million, which has ensured support for active acquisition, emerging schol­ arship, the strengthening of staff positions and resources, and technological advancement. Under Cullen’s stewardship, the Newberry was an early adopter of new technology, be­ coming one of the first independent research libraries to have a Web site and to network via a state­of­the­art intranet. The Newberry Library is an independent humanities library that is free and open to the public. (“Grants and Acquisitions” continued from page 241) including Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Ar­ for a broad range of railroad equipment from kansas, Tennessee, Texas, Kansas, Oklahoma, railroad cars to tools and fittings. Other mate­ and Missouri. The shop files include diagrams rials donated include Frisco maps, stationary, and schematics (including painting diagrams) labor agreements, and publications. (“New Publications” continued from page 239) et­fuel pioneer and occultist Jack Parsons, whose research at Caltech led to the devel­ opment of military ballistic missiles. Pendle successfully weaves together the threads of Parsons’s relatively unknown career—his in­ terest in space travel and science fi ction, his immersion in thelemic magick based on the writings of the notorious Aleister Crowley, and his untimely death in a chemical explo­ sion at his home in 1952. Much better writ­ ten than John Carter’s Sex and Rockets (Feral House, 2000), Pendle’s biography also pro­ vides a glimpse of the southern California culture in the 1930s and 1940s that allowed such a free thinker to flourish. $25.00. Har­ court. ISBN 0­15­100997­X. Thunderbirds: America’s Living Legends of Giant Birds, by Mark A. Hall (204 pages, December 2004), examines Indian legends and modern sightings of big birds with wing­ spans of up to 20 feet. The most interesting instance of the latter was a flap (one might say) of reports in southern Illinois in the sum­ mer of 1977, one of which involved a large bird that tried to carry off a 10­year­old boy in Lawndale, witnessed by two adults. Hall has assembled an intriguing list of cases and traditions that are difficult to explain. $15.95. Paraview. ISBN 1­93104­497­X. Vanishing Point, by Richard J. Tofel (216 pages, August 2004), reexamines the un­ explained disappearance of New York Su­ preme Court Judge Joseph Crater in August 1930, an event that made him the most fa­ mous missing person until Jimmy Hoffa. As part of his inquiry, Tofel looks at political corruption in New York City and the decline of the Tammany Hall political machine that Crater was involved with. Over time, specu­ lation on the case has ranged from his out­ right murder by thugs enforcing a showgirl’s blackmail scheme to Crater taking it on the lam to escape a corruption investigation. Tofel suspects Crater died suddenly at the brothel of notorious madam Polly Adler, who used her underworld connections to make the corpse disappear. $24.95. Ivan R. Dee. ISBN 1­56663­605­1. 246C&RL News March 2005