CORNELL
Kaleidoscope
Volume 9, Number 5
December 2000
L I B R A R Y
Outstanding Performance Awards
By Sarah Thomas
In This Issue....
3
Service Awards
11
People News
This year the Library received eight nominations for the “Outstanding Performance Award.”
This award, which was established two years ago by an anonymous donor, is meant to recognize outstanding contributions to the service of the university by a member of the Library’s
support staff. After careful review by several members of LMT and myself, three of the eight
nominations were selected to share this award. The three winning nominations were Peter
Schrempf, Elizabeth Perenyi, and Desktop Services Staff Amy Blumenthal, Ben Coakley, and
Laura Heisey. Each received a cash award ($1,000 each for Peter and Elizabeth, and $500
each for Amy Blumenthal, Ben Coakley, and Laura Heisey) in honor of their distinguished
service. A certificate and check were presented to each winner at the Library’s annual Employee Service Recognition Luncheon that was held on November 2nd at the Statler. The
complete list of nominees below reveals a wealth of talent and dedication of which the Library
can be justifiably proud.
I commend the staff nominated and thank their colleagues who took the time and care to
submit detailed descriptions of and testimony to their accomplishments. We are fortunate to
benefit from such excellence.
Sarah Thomas is University Librarian.
Outstanding Performance Award Winners, 2000
Peter Schrempf – Mann Library
Peter Schrempf has worked at Mann Library for
sixteen years and he clearly fits into the category of
“outstanding.” Not only does he do a superb job as the
library’s Administrative Manager, but he also orchestrates the Mann Library building project. As the Administrative Manager, Peter’s responsibilities entail a complex
matrix of budget direction ($6.8 million for 98/99),
human resources management for academic and nonacademic personnel (60+ staff members), facilities
management for the current building and new construction, and grants administration (totaling $2.4 million this
past year). Staff members come to him for help in
developing grant budgets, negotiating personnel issues,
and unclogging the sink. They value his expertise and
Sarah Thomas and Peter Schrempf
take to heart his advice and guidance in each of these
areas.
When the announcement for this award was made, several staff members sent me messages stating “nominate Peter.” The words they used to describe Peter included “unflappable,
upbeat and unreal,” “ professional, dedicated, respectful,” “enthusiastic, adventurous, and
cooperative.” Peter is all of the above; in fact, I dubbed him “St. Peter of Schrempf” at an allstaff meeting. My enthusiasm for Peter is great and I can think of no one more deserving of this
award.
— Janet McCue
continued on page 2
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Outstanding Performance Awards — continued from page 1
Elizabeth Perenyi – CTS
Elizabeth has been an outstanding member of
the Cornell University Library staff since 1967. Her
contributions to the bibliographic record and the
completeness of CUL’s serials collection are
significant. Elizabeth’s absolute mastery of the
myriad of cataloging rules and protocols for serials
and her years of experience with cataloging and
solving problems for materials in this format, make
her a valued CUL resource.
Elizabeth’s contributions and responsibilities
have grown appreciably over the past years. Her
abilities and willingness to juggle all of her tasks
with the level of attention to detail and the high
standards, which mark her every effort, are deserving of the Library’s recognition. She has the respect
of all who work with her. She should also have the
thanks of generations of CUL users who have
benefited and will benefit from Elizabeth’s hard work
to acquire and organize our serials for their use.
— Karen Calhoun
Outstanding Performance
Award Nominations
Lucy Burgess, Collections Assistant IV,
RMC; nominated by Margaret Nichols
Elizabeth Perenyi
Amy Blumenthal, Ben Coakley, Laura Heisey — DLIT Desktop Services
Although many people
played important roles
during our recent LMS
Implementation, I would
like to draw your attention
in particular to the
activities of the Desktop
Services staff. Through
their leadership and
dedication, three very
important projects
affecting almost all library
staff members were
Laura Heisey, Sarah Thomas, Amy Blumenthal, and Ben Coakley
accomplished successfully. The first project was upgrading many of the endowed staff computers to
ensure functionality with the new LMS. The second project was creating an effective
mechanism to distribute the software required by the new LMS throughout all parts
of the Cornell University Library. And finally, the third project was establishing staff
printing capabilities that were sufficient to satisfy the new LMS’ printing requirements and demands. Amy, Laura, and Ben successfully managed these extraordinary projects among their many other duties in Desktop Services.
Laura and Amy spearheaded large portions of the staff hardware upgrades.
Through attention to detail and responsiveness to staff and unit needs in an atmosphere of uncertainty and rapid changes, they managed to install and distribute
literally hundreds of new computers. They did all of this with minimal disruption to
staff operations. Ben successfully managed the upgrade to staff and unit printing
required by the new LMS’ report module. Ben was also singled out for his contribution in making the Library’s informational Voyager Fair a success.
Amy, Laura, and Ben have a seemingly tireless ability to provide cheerful, timely,
and competent desktop support. All three demonstrate a unique blend of people
skills and technical savvy that engenders an environment of understanding and
mutual respect among the Library staff in which they serve.
—Oliver Habicht
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DLIT Desktop Services, nominated by
Oliver Habicht:
Amy Blumenthal, Network Technician IV
Ben Coakley, Network Technician IV
Laura Heisey, Network Technician IV
EMPSL Staff, nominated by Jean Poland:
Joanne Leary, Library Administrator III
Michelle Paolillo, Computer Operations
Supervisor
Surinder Ghangas, Programmer/Analyst
Specialist, DLIT; nominated by Lynne
Personius
Elizabeth Perenyi, Library Administrator II, CTS, Acquisitions; nominated by
Karen Calhoun
Preservation Staff, nominated by
Susan Cobb:
Pamela Clearwater, Preservation
Assistant II
Sherry Hubbard, Preservation Assistant I
Sharon Ray, Preservation Assistant II
Laura Smith, Preservation Assistant II
Patricia Teeter, Preservation Assistant I
Peter Schrempf, Administrator IV, Mann
Library; nominated by Janet McCue
Linda Sczepanski, Administrative
Assistant IV, Administrative Operations;
nominated by John Hoffmann & Sharon
Wargo
Service Awards
The following remarks were written
by the award winners’ supervisors for
the booklet prepared for the Cornell
University Library Employee Service
Recognition Luncheon held on
November 2, 2000.
Thirty-Five Years
Crystal Hackett — Law Library
Crystal provides administrative
support in personnel and budget matters
for the Librarian and Professor of Law at
the Law Library. She also manages the
administrative office and business
operations of the Law Library, which has
a staff of twenty-four, plus student
assistants. Crystal is an exemplary staff
member, one of the most professional
people I have met. She is the glue that
holds the Law Library together. She is
committed to the success of the Law
Library, and the quality and quantity of
her work contributions are truly amazing. Among her recent accomplishments, two are of note: she successfully
implemented COLTS, the new automated payroll system, in the Law
Library, which required coaching staff,
writing a procedure manual, and
answering countless questions. She
developed the layout for a library
brochure that received much positive
attention from alumni. These come on
top of a constant and heavy workload,
since she deals with all personnel and
budget matters for the Law Library, as
well as helping every department in
some way.
Crystal Hackett and Nancie McBride
Crystal loves her three granddaughters and tries to spend as much time
with them as she can. She likes to use
every opportunity she can to spend time
at her family camp on Seneca Lake in
the summer.
— Claire Germain
Nancie McBride — Law Library
If Nancie had a personal motto, it
would have to be something like, “Go for
the gusto!” Nancie meets challenges
head-on, with verve and determination,
whether it’s learning how to use a new
computer or breaking in a new boss.
When she tells you something, you
know she’s not going to sugarcoat it,
and as her supervisor, I consider this to
be one of her most valuable qualities.
She’s a straight talker who tells it like it
is. She possesses many other fine
qualities as well; she’s hard-working,
conscientious, dedicated, funny, and a
pretty snappy dresser with a sharp
sense of humor. While her contributions
to the Law Library go back thirty-five
years, she appears to be perpetually
youthful. Not everyone may know that
Nancie likes to celebrate St. Patrick’s
Day by dying her blonde hair green!
— Jean Pajerek
nature of our collections. She is the
primary person responsible for invoicing
patrons for the production of copies
from our collections, deals with visitors
and callers with questions about the
collections, and still manages to sift
through the dross and gold which is
deposited in the collections, making
sense of personal lives for our researchers through her material arrangement.
Mary has had an equally long
association with singing and her church
and it is here that she devotes much of
her time when not at work. She has
sung in church choirs since she was a
little girl. When she is not singing or
volunteering for her church, Mary likes
to cook, and work out at Courtside
taking aerobics classes. But the place
she would most like to be is at the
ocean with her children. Mary has spent,
what for some of us, is a lifetime at
Cornell, working diligently with materials
that represent peoples lives—their
loves, hopes, tragedies, and sorrows.
Making sense of the pieces of papers
and mementos that tell a story and
making that story available to others is
much of what she does.
— CJ Lance-Duboscq
Thirty Years
Mary Warren — RMC
Mary Warren has been here long
enough to witness many changes in the
organization of the department, personnel, priorities, collections and the
physical space which houses the
department. The hallmark of Mary’s
work with the department is her steadfastness. Throughout all the changes of
the past thirty years, Mary has continued to grow in her position with additional and improved computer techniques, by expanding her knowledge of
the collections, grasping new processing
techniques, and mastering computer
databases. This has helped to assist our
patrons and make our collections more
accessible to researchers.
In the constantly changing environment of a division striving to provide
easy access to collections and personal
assistance to patrons, Mary has kept up
to speed by acquiring computer skills
and keeping up with the changing
Joel Zumoff and Mary Warren
Joel Zumoff — DLIT
Joel spent a significant portion of his
thirty years with Cornell University
working for CIT on the University payroll
system. That’s the one that generated
all of our paychecks from about 1970
through last year. Joel’s work for the
Payroll department was excellent—
Cornell never experienced problems
while under his careful watch. Joel and I
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Service Awards — continued from page 3
worked together in the mid seventies to
develop a computer system for the
University Registrar’s Office. After CIT,
Joel worked for the University Audit
Office as an auditor of campus computing systems, and then joined the
University Accounting Office. During his
time at CUL, Joel has kept an eye on
the NOTIS system, and has recently
worked to capture the last bits of
information that didn’t migrate to
Voyager (order history and decision
records for example), and to make that
available to CUL staff. Joel is an
excellent programmer.
— Lynne Personius
Twenty-Five Years
Sandy Driscoll and Art Bell
Arthur Bell — Shipping and Receiving
Art Bell works as part of a team in
Library Administrative Operations,
providing complex delivery and receiving services for the endowed library
system. He has been with the Shipping
team longer than anyone else in the
department and takes great pride in his
work. He is very loyal and dedicated to
the department and the library as a
whole. He enjoys working with the public
and meeting new challenges everyday.
He also likes to compare what was
twenty-five years ago, with what is
today. One big change that Art has
encountered is the computer systems
that the shipping department has used
over the years. His current duties
include loading and unloading materials
and delivering large volumes of books
and materials throughout the library
system, which includes twelve libraries
and twenty units in twelve different
buildings. He delivers and collects
incoming and outgoing first class mail
as well as receiving and sorting first
class and campus mail. Art wraps, sorts,
and meters mail, including insured and
registered packages and rare book
materials.
Prior to coming to Cornell, Art
worked as a restaurant cook for ten
years. His family benefits from his
culinary talent. Art is also an avid hunter
and enjoys carpentry work.
— Don Fenton
Sandra Driscoll — Mann Library
Sandy Driscoll has so many good
traits that make her a critical member of
the serials “team” at Mann Library. Her
dedication to her job and co-workers is
especially noteworthy. During periods of
short staffing or special projects she is
sometimes too reluctant to take any time
off for herself. Although there have been
many such periods over Sandy’s twentyfive years, it is also such a period now.
On several occasions in the past and
again this summer she’s changed plans
for previously scheduled vacation time
because she didn’t want to abandon her
co-workers. She also uses her experience and efforts to tackle new projects.
Throughout her years of dedicated
service to the Library she’s seen many
changes. During these times her
experience has been a real resource to
the unit.
Despite her reluctance to take much
time off, work is not the only commitment for her time and energy. She
enjoys time with her family, especially
her young grandson, whose photos
decorate her desk. Another photo on her
desk is of her very energetic young dog,
JR. JR gives her a run for her money
and is a source of much joy and laughter—he is the basis of many stories for
the staff. She also finds time for gardening and working on projects in her
home. Whatever endeavor gets her
attention, she’s always committed to
doing the job well.
— Bill Kara
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Twenty Years
Mei-Hsi Chen — CTS
Mei-Hsi has had many different
duties, but recently she has been
assigned to work as a copy cataloger
working on the conversion of library
materials in the Chinese language from
the Wade-Giles system of romanization
to the Pinyin system. Last year she took
full responsibility for processing the
famous Japanese Maeda collection,
including hiring and training student
assistants. Mei-Hsi has helped to train
the Wason staff to use the various
computer systems, and has been an
unofficial liaison between CTS and
Wason, helping to create a better
understanding and more efficient
relationship. She is a conscientious,
knowledgeable, and dedicated staff
member with very high work standards.
She promotes harmony and literally
eases the tension by giving wonderful
back and neck massages to anyone in
need.
Mei-Hsi shows a professional
concern for quality work and keeps a
remarkable amount of work flowing
smoothly. She juggles many tasks with
efficiency and a smile. She is cheerful
and generous in her interactions with
staff and management alike. Her
generous spirit is evident on the occasions when her friends receive a special
gift that she has brought for them from
her most recent trip to Taiwan. When
asked to describe Mei-Hsi everyone
without exception responded, ‘She’s a
sweetheart.’
— Nancy Heliseva
Julie Copenhagen — ILS, OKU Access
Services
Julie is one of the true treasures of
CUL and we are very fortunate to have
someone of her caliber. Her service to
the Cornell community has been and
continues to be outstanding. One need
look no further than the number of times
Julie has been thanked in prefaces of
newly published faculty books to see
that her efforts in Interlibrary Services
are much appreciated and valued. She
has a phenomenal public services
attitude and has been a leader in
helping to implement new initiatives in
interlibrary loan. She is well known and
respected beyond Cornell as well. Often
at conferences, colleagues from other
institutions make it a point to tell me
how wonderful it is to work with someone like Julie and how lucky Cornell is.
Many people may not know that the
lovely arrangements of flowers in ILS
are due to Julie’s talent with gardening.
We look forward to the gorgeous flowers
she brings spring to fall!
— Susan Currie
Nancy Dailey — Mann Library
During her tenure in Access Services, Nancy has consistently shown the
ability to be flexible, cooperative, and
extremely helpful to her colleagues and
the public. She has outstanding analytical and organizational abilities; she has
used these skills to assist in re-structuring interlibrary borrowing, with the
design of the circulation desk in the new
addition, and with the written procedures and day-to-day management of
Mann’s two, huge, Annex book-moving
projects. Nancy learns new online
systems quickly, and is one of the few
people in the unit to have a strong
working knowledge of every piece of
software we use in Access Services—
an amazing feat.
— Howard Raskin
Surinder Ghangas — DLIT
For Library Systems, this past year
has been dominated by the Voyager
installation. Surinder’s exceptional work
ethic and extensive technical knowledge
together led us to a successful implementation. Surinder, as our Oracle DBA,
has specialized technical knowledge on
which we all rely, and she is totally
committed to putting that knowledge to
work for CUL. She was a member of the
Voyager Implementation Management
Team, contributing with earnestness,
honesty, and knowledge at every point
in the implementation of Voyager. She
gained deep respect from our technical
colleagues at Endeavor with both her
extensive knowledge of the Voyager
system environment, and with the
energy and enthusiasm that she brought
to the implementation. She never said
that something was impossible, but
instead always went about finding a way
to make it happen. It is a pleasure
working with Surinder.
— Lynne Personius
Sung Ok Kim — CTS
It’s impossible to pick just one trait of
Sung Ok’s to highlight. As an original
cataloger in Central Technical Services,
she has to juggle many conflicting
responsibilities and she does this with
an enviable calm. No matter what the
department calls on her to do, she
always accepts with a good-natured
smile. She is the most dedicated and
conscientious of catalogers. As faithfully
as she attends to what is currently on
her desk, she also takes many classes
to prepare herself for whatever may
come down the road next. She knows
there is no standing still in our dynamic
environment!
Sung Ok takes her responsibilities to
others seriously. She devotes her time
to her church library, does Korean
translation, and tutors in the Korean
language.
— Pam Stansbury
Standing: Sharon Van de Mark, Lois Purcell,
Mae Leckey, Judi Lacey. Seated: Mei-Hsi
Chen, Surinder Ghangas, Julia Parker.
Judi Lacey — Facilities and Business
Operations
Everyone who works with Judi knows
that she is the epitome of efficiency in
her work. What many people don’t know
is that she frequently demonstrates her
“can do” approach to problem solving.
She doesn’t complain about processes
that aren’t working well. She evaluates
them and recommends or implements
changes. Her most visible success in
this area was the establishment of a
system to manage phone and voice
service in the library system, resulting in
significant cost reductions. It’s no small
surprise that CIT trusts Judi’s jack
inventory database over their own.
Judi has come a long way since the
days when she made hinder binders for
J.C. Penney. She says the size 54s
were really hard to sew. She’s also an
accomplished graphic artist, creating
her own line of specialty cards for any
occasion.
— Sharon Wargo
Mae Leckey — Law Library
The Law Library holds many hidden
treasures, but one of its better-kept
secrets is Mae Leckey. Mae performs
her duties out of the public spotlight,
working tirelessly in the Law Library’s
technical services department. Throughout her twenty years at the Law Library,
Mae has made a point of acquiring new
skills and developing new areas of
expertise, particularly in network
administration. Her willingness (and
even eagerness) to expand her horizons
is one of the qualities that I value most
about Mae. The transition to Voyager
has provided ample opportunity for Mae
to shine in her role as the Law Library’s
network administrator. As both network
administrator and student supervisor for
the catalog department, Mae remains an
island of calm serenity while chaos
swirls all around her, garnering the
respect and admiration of her coworkers. Many people may not know
that among Mae’s many talents is her
fine singing voice, which she puts to
good use as a member of her church
choir.
— Jean Pajerek
Timothy Lynch — Mann Library
Tim Lynch is the chief architect of
Mann Library’s technology infrastructure. As head of the Information Technology Section, Tim manages a staff of
programmers, systems analysts, and
technicians who develop our systems,
support our research initiatives, and
keep all the servers, software, and
workstations humming. For the past few
years, Tim has split his time between
Mann Library and the Cornell Library’s
DLIT unit. In DLIT, he has been involved
in digital library development, including
recent specifications for Endeavor’s new
ENCompass software. Tim is inquisitive
and innovative. He is a scout on the
information technology landscape,
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Service Awards — continued from page 5
following the new trends, separating the
wheat from the chaff, and plotting a
course for the future. As a senior
member of the ITS group recently
remarked, “Tim is miles ahead of the
rest of us in scouting upcoming technologies and methodologies.” So many
of the Library’s programs have Tim’s
imprint on them—the foundation of the
original Gateway reflects his technical
expertise; projects with the National
Agricultural Library reflect his collaborative nature, and the service orientation
of his department reflects his deep
appreciation of the importance of the
library.
In his spare time, Tim tinkers with
software and hardware. He volunteers
his technical expertise to support nonprofit web site development. Or, he
volunteers his carpentry skills to build
shelves and gingerbread houses for
kindergarten classrooms. In his “real”
spare time, you might catch Tim on
Salmon Creek, fly fishing with his son,
Eric … or you might even catch a
glimpse of him whirling on the dance
floor at the Rongovian Embassy with his
wife, Donna. Laissez les bon temps
rouler, Tim!
— Janet McCue
Linda Mapes — Engineering Library
I find Linda’s most valuable trait to
be the way she treats other people with
honesty, kindness, and compassion. I
have seen her, over and over again, be
the most welcoming to new employees,
students, and others she meets and that
has impressed me significantly over the
years. Her willingness to change and
grow and take on new assignments is
exemplary. Her recent acceptance of a
position of more responsibility in the
EMPS libraries is a great recognition of
her skills in working with other people.
I don’t know if most people know
how adventurous Linda is. Outwardly
she appears shy but she is always
involved in doing some kind of adventure involving traveling, volunteering,
and something different like whalewatching. I think this side of her doesn’t
frequently come out at work but it is
truly there.
— John Saylor
Julia Parker — RMC
Julia Parker’s organizational skills
have repeatedly enabled her to bring
order out of chaos when logging
correspondence to and from the Division
of Rare and Manuscript Collections,
dealing with photograph orders, or more
recently, processing manuscript collections. Her sense of order, her hard work,
and her ability to learn quickly have
enabled us to keep up with the inflow of
new manuscript material despite staff
cuts in the past few years. We really
appreciate her way of patiently and
conscientiously making sense out of
boxes stuffed with miscellaneous
papers.
Julia is also a skilled seamstress,
and has made elaborate Renaissance
outfits for friends and family to wear at
weddings and other special occasions. If
you need an Elizabethan ruff collar, she
is the person to go to!
— Margaret Nichols
Lois Purcell — CTS
In describing Lois’ most valuable
accomplishment, I could easily focus on
her efforts on the backlog reduction
project, seamlessly coordinating
Marcadia automated processing with the
assignments of a battalion of permanent
staff, temporary staff, and students. But
more important to me, and I think to the
other CUL staff members who work
most closely with Lois, are the personal
qualities that make such seemingly
effortless coordination of people and
resources possible for her on assignment after assignment after assignment.
Put simply, Lois cares about the people
she works with. She sincerely wants
good things to happen to us. She’s
pleased when something in the library or
at home makes us happy and she’s
concerned when things go wrong for us.
When Lois talks to me, I know she is
talking to me, not simply to the person
who is doing my job. That level of
interest and concern prompts Lois’
colleagues to give a little extra in what
we do. Just by being who she is, she
makes CTS a better place to work.
There are a few things about Lois
that many people may not know. For
one, she loves fennel-licorice-anise
flavored confections. For another, she
has three granddaughters who are so
special to her that she uses some of her
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vacation to spend time with them.
Finally, for a third, Lois is quite the fan
of jazz music. In fact, her longtime
interest in jazz inspired one of her sons
to become a jazz horn player and he
has dedicated one of his CDs to her.
— Marty Kurth
Laura Smith — Preservation/Conservation
Laura Smith has worked in the
Preservation/Conservation unit for
twenty years. She spends her days
either in the Preparations Unit or in the
Commercial Binding Office. She is
equally appreciated in both units, and
she’s always willing to help wherever
she is needed at the time.
Laura is the grandmother of four.
There are two girls and two boys with
another one on the way. She loves to
spend time with her grandchildren and
they love to spend time with her. They
get to “help” wash dishes and bake
cookies. Laura is also very busy with
church activities, and volunteers in the
church nursery. She enjoys working in
her flowerbeds and she went sailing for
the very first time just a few weeks ago.
— Susan Cobb
Yvonne Spry — CTS
Yvonne Spry is one of CTS’ hidden
treasures! Her good sense, dedication,
and vast experience make her one of
the most reliable staff members in the
Catalog department. Not only does she
have a wealth of knowledge, she is
always willing to learn more! Yvonne
first started working in the library system
in 1985 with the Catalog Management
group, and has held a variety of positions since then. In every department,
and with each job title, she has worked
on a variety of projects. She seems to
thrive on special projects, and I’m quite
sure that she’s never met a project that
she wasn’t able to become immersed in
and see to it’s satisfactory conclusion!
Her tendency for thoroughness gives
her the edge it takes to be successful at
following through on special projects
and her patience is another ingredient
for success. And because she is so
patient, others feel comfortable and
even privileged to work on projects with
her. She is a mentor for several staff
members from different areas throughout CTS, and seems never too busy to
help staff sort through sticky problems.
Her current tasks and talents reach
much further than her current job title of
copy cataloger. Last year she took a
class in HTML through TC3, and
adapted to the challenge of that software very quickly. Because she is so
thorough, she has been a real asset for
working on documents for the new
Voyager Manual. She also was a
welcome addition to the Voyager
training team as she aided the trainers
in the classroom. Her relaxed manner,
helpful attitude, and thorough knowledge were a real benefit to trainees, as
well as the trainers.
Yvonne and her husband Bob live in
Groton, have two sons, and two grandchildren. Her son Adam is also a
member of the CUL system; his polite
and friendly manner are another credit
to his Mom. Even Yvonne’s outside
activities reflect her talent for detail. She
is involved in the American Legion
Auxiliary and performs a variety of tasks
for them, at both the local and district
level. She’s also the secretary for her
bowling association. I’m convinced that
her associates from those organizations
feel as fortunate as I do to have her as a
member of their team.
— Lois Purcell
Sharon Van de Mark — Mann Library
Sharon is always willing to pitch in,
whether it is learning a new software
package, processing a huge collection
of gift books, fixing computer problems,
moving furniture, or baking a cake for
someone’s birthday. And she does all
this with an incredibly up-beat attitude!
All the staff in Mann Collection Development and Preservation rely on Sharon’s
good nature and organizational skills to
keep things operating smoothly.
Sharon is a “jack of all trades” at
home, as well. She is an avid gardener,
weekend camper, baker extraordinaire,
and soccer mom.
— Mary Ochs
Fifteen Years
John Marmora, Alison Reissman, Yvonne Spry,
Peter Schrempf
Cynthia Lange — CTS
Cynthia is an original cataloger in
Olin’s Central Technical Services. Her
responsibilities include the cataloging of
Fine Arts, Wason, and South Asian
materials. She is incredibly conscientious and somehow manages to juggle
all her commitments in the friendliest of
manners. The selectors of her materials
all give Cynthia high marks for her
concern and genuine interest in both the
materials she catalogs and the scholars
that use those materials. In spite of all
her cataloging skills, the trait we all rely
on the most is Cynthia’s wicked sense
of humor. No matter what trials and
tribulations come our way, Cynthia
always puts them in perspective with a
wry comment and a devilish laugh.
She reveals her daring side by her
participation in bike racing!
— Pam Stansbury
John Marmora — OKU Collection
Management
John is a multi-faceted and talented
person who accomplishes a great deal
each day for the library, while always
striving to bring out his staff’s best. John
has had four jobs in his fifteen years
here. I think he’d agree that his most
demanding was his assignment to the
Annex Expansion Project as the Moving
Project Manager. In that project, over
1,350,000 items from the original project
and over 222,000 items for temporary
Mann storage were added to the
Annex’s inventory control system. At
peak times in the final year, staff
accessioned over 4,000 items a day.
The work had to be coordinated with
staff from almost every library on
campus—each library having its own
special needs. Throughout this project,
John readily shared his energy, initiative, organizational skills, creativity,
business experience, and drive to
complete all work as promptly as
possible while always considering staff
morale. Now that that project has been
completed, we’re very glad he is back in
OKU as a supervisor in the Collection
Management department.
Do you have a tree identification
problem? If John doesn’t know, he
knows how to find out. Who would have
believed there is such a thing as a
“pinecone willow gall?” John also owns
a beautiful grape farm and has a pet
cow named “Bella.”
— Linda Miller
Alison Reissman — CTS
I cannot think what we would do
without Alison! She is, of course, a
dedicated cataloger of Greek, Latin,
Italian, and Spanish materials here in
CTS, but she is also our computer guru.
In fact, currently Alison has a split
appointment, half-time in Desktop
Services and half-time in Cataloging.
Alison is instrumental in the smooth
running of our department’s computers
and software. She has been a lifesaver
more times than I can count!
Alison devotes many hours of her
time to nurture and socialize stray and
abandoned dogs at the Tompkins
County SPCA. If you want any dog
advice, Alison is your girl!
— Pam Stansbury
Peter Schrempf — Mann Library
Peter Schrempf has worked at Mann
Library for sixteen years and he clearly
fits into the category of “outstanding.”
Not only does he do a superb job as the
library’s Administrative Manager, but he
also orchestrates the Mann Library
building project. As the Administrative
Manager, Peter’s responsibilities entail a
complex matrix of budget direction
($6.8 million for 98/99), human resources management for academic and
non-academic personnel (60+ staff
members), facilities management for the
current building and new construction,
and grants administration (totaling
$2.4 million this past year). Staff
members come to him for help in
continued on page 8
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Service Awards — continued from page 7
developing grant budgets, negotiating
personnel issues, and unclogging the
sink. They value his expertise and take
to heart his advice and guidance in each
of these areas.
For fifteen of his sixteen years at
Mann, Peter also has been involved in
the Mann Library building project.
Although this project had a quiet phase
for almost a decade, the past five years
have been intense. From developing the
program documents to working with
each of our vendors, to negotiating with
the college for space, to explaining
issues to the staff, Peter has done an
outstanding job. As we prepared to
move into the addition, Peter’s truck
was parked outside at 7:00 a.m. and
often still there twelve hours later.
— Janet McCue
Ten Years
Jennifer Abrahamson — OKU
Reference Services Division
When I look back over Jennie’s
employment history with Cornell, I
realize anew how very fortunate we are
to have her on our staff in the OKU
Reference Services Division. She
actually began working in the Cornell
Library system twelve years ago as a
searcher in the Acquisitions department
in Olin Library. After a brief break in
service she started working in the Music
Library where she added public services
skills to her valuable knowledge of
bibliographic searching. In the eight
years since she joined our division as a
reference assistant, I have continually
been impressed by, and grateful for,
Jennie’s extraordinary dedication to her
job. She is genuinely devoted to providing the best service possible for our
library patrons. We’ve been through
some challenging times together with
busy service desks, long hours, mergers, renovations, staff shortages, and
the many changes bringing us into the
digital age. Through it all, Jennie has
persevered in a remarkably upbeat,
forward-looking fashion. She’s the kind
of person who cares about each individual she works with but who also
always strives to see the “bigger
picture.”
Many people know that, in addition
to her library duties, Jennie is a gifted
musician. I will always recall the soaring
beauty of her flute music in the Unitarian
Church this year. Something about
Jennie that some people might not know
is that she is also what I refer to as a
“labrador mom.” To fully appreciate what
a remarkable person Jennie is, you
would have to balance the logistics of a
challenging library job, music performance and teaching responsibilities, and
the demands of parenting two eternally
youthful pups.
— Nancy Skipper
Debra Bacon — OKU Reference
Services Division
Debra Bacon juggles a multitude of
tasks daily as she valiantly works to
meet the administrative support needs of
more than twenty people in the OKU
Reference Services Division. She
balances competing demands—often
having short deadlines—with grace and
aplomb. In addition to library staff,
Debra frequently interacts with users as
they register for library workshops; in
dealing with users, she is an effective
representative of both the division and
the library. When I arrived at CUL five
years ago as her new supervisor, Debra
taught me the ropes, and helped me get
up to speed with the budget sheets,
telephone statements, and statistics. I
must have been a slow learner—she is
still—patiently and tactfully—trying to
get me up to speed with some of these
things! We will be forever indebted to
Debra for the thoughtful, supportive way
she eased our hourly-wage staff—and
their supervisors—into COLTS.
In addition to her work in Reference,
Debra has been active in the Cornell
community. She served on the Planning
Committee for “Frontline Feedback” and
was the first president of the Cornell
chapter of the International Association
of Administrative Professionals. As many
of her colleagues know, Debra has a
very hefty commute—she lives outside
Owego, almost thirty miles from Ithaca.
Nonetheless, she is always here—and
awake—before most of her colleagues.
All of us in OKU Reference wish Debra
well on this, her tenth anniversary!
— Paul Constantine
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Gary Branch — CTS
Gary Branch is known in CTS, and in
fact around CUL, as the guy who can
find an item when all others have given
up. Gary is responsible for the initial
organization of the Olin backlogs, as
well as the smooth operation of it for
several years. Though he no longer has
the primary responsibility for the
maintenance of the backlogs, we in CTS
still depend on him to accomplish what
the rest of us consider impossible
missions. I’ve depended on him innumerable times since he and I started
working together in CTS’ Copy Cataloging unit three years ago; his remarkable
memory has repeatedly been a blessing
to me. In 1998, Gary agreed to become
one of CTS’ network administrators. The
department is extremely fortunate that
Gary transferred his talent for sleuthing,
his attention to detail, his timeliness,
and his desire for perfection, to the
NetAdmin role. Again, we find ourselves
depending on him to accomplish the
impossible. I personally have depended
on him to help me plan several projects,
and have benefited each time from
Gary’s logical approach and unique
solutions to problems. Gary’s most
recent contribution to the smooth
running of CTS, is in the form of creating a core group of macros for use with
Voyager. Gary investigated the software
that others were intimidated by, and all
CTS staff are the lucky recipients!
Gary and his wife Sue live with their
son Michael in Groton, in a new home
constructed for them two years ago.
Gary jokingly comments that the only
hobbies he is now able to pursue
involve their new home and related
chores! Eight-year-old Michael has
several computer games for their home
computer, and I expect that he’s as
happy about his dad’s computer expertise as all of us in CTS are!
— Lois Purcell
Carol Buckley — OKU Circulation
Carol Buckley is a very dedicated
student supervisor. She is a wonderful
role model and should take pride in
knowing that she has made a difference
in the lives of many young adults whose
very first job is in many cases the one
that they hold with us at the library.
Carol is a friendly, genuine, caring, fair
student supervisor who is also very
serious and can be firm with her students when necessary. This combination
works quite well as her students are
often some of the best students we have
working within the library system as a
whole.
When not working at the libraries,
Carol is off singing. She sings for
Cornell events (including the Library
holiday parties and during reunion
weekend) and for weddings and other
parties and events. Carol is also an
actor. She sings and acts in multiple
local theatrical programs each year.
— Bethany Silfer
Christina Bucko — OKU Administration
Some may consider it a cliché, but
there really are those who are “absolutely essential.” Chris Bucko is one of
them. As anyone who has had the good
fortune to work with her will know, Chris
is an indispensable resource not only for
OKU but for the entire library system.
Chris started in the Library in May of
1990, as an administrative assistant in
the central Library Administration in
201 Olin. Chris distinguished herself
from the beginning with her exceptional
organizational skills, her commitment to
confidentiality, and her ability to “run
calm” under even the most intense of
pressures. Her role as a system-wide
resource also began in 201. From its
first issue in May of 1992 Chris has
been a key member of the Editorial
Committee for Kaleidoscope, a position
she continues to hold in addition to
being Kaleidoscope’s de facto “production manager,” overseeing the layout
and printing of every issue.
After four years in 201, Chris moved
down the hall in June of 1994 to the
OKU administrative offices, where she
continues today. Here her professionalism, organizational skills, and unfailing
good humor have been recognized and
appreciated by all, and she has become
a true partner in all the varied and
complex operations of this office. Chris’
commitment to acquiring new skills, both
at work and in her personal life, continues to be one of her special attributes.
Most recently it has led her to join the
U.S. Naval Reserves and she is today
Standing: Donna Callais, Lisa Dayton, Jennie Abrahamson, Carol Buckley, Deb Shigley, Pat Teeter,
Gary Branch, Joe McNamara. Seated: Jeanette Miller, Ardeen White, Margie Ditmars, Debra Bacon.
(unfortunately for us) on her way to
basic training. So, Chris, we can only
salute you in absentia!
— David Corson
Donna Callais — Mann Library
Where to begin? Donna has incredible talents! She can fix almost any type
of hardware problem. There is no job
too big or too small for Donna. The staff
at Mann Library wouldn’t know what to
do without her!
Donna was a truck driver for six
years. She drove a semi cross-country
while also working to finish up her
masters thesis. Can you imagine seeing
a truck driver sitting in a cab typing
away at a thesis? Hopefully she wasn’t
typing while she was driving! Donna is a
real homebody. She loves to work on her
house and land. To unwind, Donna likes to
make a campfire on her property and drink
a Bud Light (or two) with a few good
friends.
— Holly Mistlebauer
Lisa Dayton — Mann Library
Lisa has a ying yang pair of traits
that make her invaluable. She has a
sense of humor and is incredibly
hardworking and organized. She keeps
us in jokes, acting like a filter for all the
jokes she hears and passing the
appropriate ones on to an emeritus
professor or to her colleagues on staff.
She is able to see the humor in any
situation and keeps that sense of humor
no matter what. On top of that, Lisa is
hardworking and organized. Everything
that should be done is done on time,
and well. Her influence extends beyond
her tasks, keeping the whole division on
track, sending us reminders, and always
asking how she can help us. She is a
nonpareil, a paragon, peerless.
Little known facts about Lisa? She is
a Katherine Gibbs graduate (white
gloves, still does shorthand), hung out in
Haight Ashbury in its heyday (ask her to
share some of her stories), and does a
mean jitterbug.
— Kathy Chiang
Margarita Ditmars — Engineering
Library
Margie has made many valuable
contributions, accomplished a lot, and
has a specific trait that I particularly
admire, which is her honesty and
straightforwardness. I can count on
Margie to tell me exactly what she is
thinking in an honest and direct manner,
which I find extremely valuable. She is
detailed and caring about her work and
very intelligent in the way she analyzes
a problem and designs an effective way
to solve it. Her recent organization and
leadership of our massive Annextransfer project was invaluable in
making the transition go smoothly and
accurately. I have thoroughly enjoyed
working with all her energy and look
forward to doing it in the future.
Margie has many passions and
skills. The ones I know about include
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Service Awards — continued from page 9
gardening, home decorating and house
remodeling, food preparation, and wine
appreciation. One thing most people
might not know about are her tremendous dancing skills ( a trait that seems
to run in her family) and the fact that
she secretly wishes to be a singer.
— John Saylor
Michael Friedman — Veterinary Medical
Library
As Michael’s new supervisor, I wish I
had more things to tell about him. I feel
Michael has a good sense of humor and
has been generous to his co-workers.
He also goes out of his way to help
patrons find the information they need.
Michael adopted two lab cats from
the Veterinary School. He rigged up an
old ladder, covered the steps with a rug,
and now his two cats have a very high
play area. Something else some people
may not know is that Michael rides a
motorcycle. Michael is selling his
motorcycle so he can get another one.
The one he has now is good for coming
to work and riding around town, but he
wants another one so he can take
longer trips.
— Donna Thomas
Ron Liso — Engineering Library
Ron has a congeniality and warmth
about him that people find endearing
and comforting. He works well with our
patrons and student staff, who have
often commented on how enjoyable it is
to work with him. In addition to his
affable nature, Ron has always been as
reliable as the moon, and as mellow. His
willingness to do whatever is required,
and to come in when needed (even on
very short notice) outside of his scheduled hours, have made him an asset to
our staff.
In spite of being a full-blooded Noo
Yawkuh, from Brooklyn no less, Ron
does not chew glass or talk out of the
side of his mouth; in fact, he is green
through and through. He has been an
active member of Greenstar for many
years, and recently has been doing
cartoons for the organization’s newsletter. Ron is also a long-time member
of the Community Garden and the
Folkdance club. For years, he has been
a substitute teacher in the local school
system. On the other hand ... he must
have a tough streak, as he once served
on the jury of a murder trial in NYC in
which the defendant was convicted.
— Joanne Leary
Craig Mains — OKU Access Services
Craig is an extraordinary staff
member. As one of the evening/weekend supervisors, he is responsible for
Olin, Kroch and Uris Libraries. The
administration can always be assured
that the libraries are in good hands
when Craig is working. Craig unfailingly
deals with emergencies and security
problems in a calm, efficient manner.
His capability ranges from soothing an
unhappy patron to overseeing emergency measures for a large flow of
water coming down on stacks—all done
in an outstanding manner. He is equally
skilled at carrying out routine responsibilities. He sees the big picture, and
directs students and staff in a clear
manner. He provides quality service,
setting an example for staff and students. He is an excellent trainer and
enjoys technology and continues to
learn new applications that he adapts
for library use.
Craig is an artist and the library is
fortunate to have use of his artistic
skills, particularly visible in the beautiful
new signage throughout OKU Libraries.
Outside the library, his artwork is always
growing and changing and he works in
many mediums—photography,
printmaking, computer graphics, and
ceramics. Recently he has become a
member of the Inkshop/Olive Press
Artist Cooperative.
— Carmen Blankinship
Joseph McNamara — TSSU
Joe’s most valuable contribution to
our unit is his coaching ability and
sense of fair play. Joe has a strong
commitment to his job and to his
student employees. He takes the time to
get to know each student and is interested in his or her progress and
problems. He works hard at maintaining
the workflow, developing his training
skills, and scheduling the students.
Joe is a master chef of Chinese
takeout, not to mention a talented
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musician, and novelist, yet unpublished
(I’m still hoping for the chance to say I
knew him when …).
— Carrol Tavelli
Jeanette Miller — Physical Sciences
Library
Jeanette Miller opens the Physical
Sciences Library four days a week.
While that is not Jeanette’s most
important contribution to the Library it
certainly is the most visible. We all know
it takes tremendous dedication to be at
work, on time, every morning. Jeanette
is a flexible, creative, and loyal staff
member. She contributes great ideas
and puts a lot of energy into her work.
Jeanette is willing to take on any task
that needs to be completed and is
always thinking ahead to what else has
to be done. She is very valuable to us at
PSL.
A long-time resident of Ithaca,
Jeanette is an active golfer and volunteers in many campus and local service
organizations. The Library is her second
Cornell career. Jeanette was a manager
in Cornell Dining Services for eleven
years before leaving to raise her son. In
the Library, Jeanette worked in the Law
and Hotel Libraries before coming to
PSL. Jeanette also works part-time at
the Robert Trent Jones Golf Course.
— Jean Poland
Suzanne Schwartz — OKU Collection
Management
After spending eight years working
for University Development and a year
for Library Conservation, Suzanne has
been working in the Collection Management Division of OKU Access Services.
She manages stack levels and works on
a variety of special projects. She is an
independent and self-motivated individual. Suzanne has a wonderful sense
of humor and a sensitive understanding
of the beauty in life, as well as its
absurdities.
Suzanne has a wide variety of
interests. She has spent some time
studying Korean, writing plays, studying
and interpreting American Sign Language, and drawing.
— Joel Copenhagen
Deborah Shigley — Human Resources
Deb Shigley is well known to Library
staff members in her role as Assistant
Director of Library Human Resources.
She oversees the hiring and appointment of new staff, handles many
employee relation issues, deals with
disability and Worker’s Compensation
claims, and is, in general, invaluable to
the Library. Deb writes a monthly
column in Kaleidoscope, chairs the Job
Review Committee, serves on a university-wide benefits committee, was
instrumental in getting the new Library
Injury Prevention Team started, and
coordinates the Library recognition
events such as the Fuerst Awards
reception. Besides the numerous events
and ongoing projects she works on, Deb
is always available to consult with me
about the many complexities we encounter in dealing with the university
bureaucracy. I rely on her knowledge
about who to call for the latest information on a variety of topics. Deb excels in
handling difficult situations with a
combination of sensitivity and directness
that is very effective.
In her spare time, Deb is a volunteer
EMS Chief with the Dryden Fire Department. She also enjoys spending time
with her husband Jim, two daughters,
and four grandchildren. Deb is also
proud to say she has recently graduated
from TC3 with her Associates Degree.
— Susan Markowitz
Patricia Teeter — Preservation/Conservation
Pat Teeter has worked in the
Preparations unit for ten years. Her
main duties are stiffening, pamphlet
cases, fan glues, and putting covers on
senate hearings. Pat is a very consistent and dedicated worker.
Pat is the grandmother of sixteen.
There are eleven girls, but only five
boys. She loves spending time with all
of them, and only wishes they lived
closer. Pat says they are the joy of her
life. Pat is also an avid gardener. She
spends a lot of time in her flower
gardens. She is a great cook and the
entire office enjoys her cookies and pies
when she has been in one of her baking
moods. Pat is a real pleasure to work
with.
— Susan Cobb
Ardeen White — CTS
Ardeen White is known and highly
regarded throughout CUL. Though her
CUL career began in the Geneva
Library, she has spent the last nine
years in CTS. Until last year, her widest
exposure was perhaps through her
contributions to Kaleidoscope. She was
the creator of two different columns, the
first being an extremely useful one she
wrote during her tenure as a member of
the CTS RMI Team, From the RMI
Team. Her other creation was the Divine
Order column. Ardeen’s exceptional
organizational skills made her the
perfect author of that column. However,
her most recent notoriety is a result of
two very different activities. First, she
was one of the three recipients of last
year’s CUL Staff Recognition Award.
The selection of Ardeen for that prestigious award made all in CTS proud. And
last spring, she agreed to be one of the
all-important Voyager trainers. With her
fellow trainers, she wrote scripts that
would eventually become the basis for
large sections of the CUL Voyager
Manual. As a member of the Copy
Cataloging and Backlog Management
unit since 1997, she had previously
proven her value as a trainer. Her
consistently patient and thorough
manner has made her invaluable.
After a zealous search, about a year
ago Ardeen was able to find a suitable
house for herself on West Hill. An avid
gardener for many years, and active
member of Ithaca Community Gardens,
she is thrilled to be able to move some
of her flowers and plants from her
community garden space to her very
own piece of treasured real estate. It’s
fun to watch Ardeen’s eyes light up
when she talks about projects she
undertakes around her new home. She
is also interested in many fiber arts—
she has made clever dolls, clothing,
dried flower arrangements, and wreaths,
to name just a few. Ardeen is CTS’ main
gardener too. Our work place has been
enhanced by Ardeen’s careful selection
and care of the department greenery.
— Lois Purcell
People News
November 1 – November 30
he was a forest technician at Cornell.
WELCOME
Ronald Clark is the new mail processor in
the Shipping and Receiving department of
Library Administrative Operations. He has
an AS degree in business administration
from TC3 and comes to us from a position
at GLYPH Technologies in Ithaca.
Robert Glase is the new preservation
assistant in Preservation/Conservation.
He has a BA in history from Portland State
University. Previously he was a records
clerk at Ball Janik LLP.
Timothy DePriest is a new collections
assistant in the OKU Reference division.
He has a BS in environmental and forest
biology from SUNY Environmental Science
and Forestry in Syracuse, NY. Previously
LeRoy LaFleur is a visiting intern in the
Minority Fellowship program. He has an
MLS from the University of Wisconsin at
Madison and a BS from Michigan State.
Liisa Mobley is a new technical services
assistant at Mann Library. She has a BFA
from Ithaca College and an MS in textile
science from the University of Rhode
Island. Previously she worked for Kendal
at Ithaca and Classen Home Health
Associates, and also worked in the serials
department at Olin as a student.
Gina Gammage-Sikora recently joined
the Music Library as a public services
assistant. She has a PhD from the
department of comparative literature at
Binghamton University. Gina was a visiting
assistant professor teaching Latin American literature at Cornell during the spring
2000 semester.
continued on page 12
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201 Olin Library
Ithaca, NY 14853-5301
(607) 255-5068
Kaleidoscope is published monthly except June and July by Cornell University Library and printed at CUL Photocopy Services.
Editorial Committee: Mary Arsenault, Barbara Berger-Eden, Christina Bucko, Marty Crowe, Elizabeth Fontana, and Elizabeth Teskey.
People — continued from page 11
TRANSFERS
Victor Maine has transferred from the
position of mail processor to the position
of building coordinator in Library
Administrative Operations.
PROMOTIONS
Thomas Cotton has recently been
promoted from building coordinator III to
facilities coordinator I in Library Administrative Operations.
GOOD-BYE
Good-bye and good luck to Ben
Coakley, DLIT, who recently left CUL.
RETIREMENTS
After twenty-two years of service in the
Acquisitions Department of Olin Library,
Igor Fonarov retired October 18, 2000.
He will be sorely missed as one of the
Library’s main resources supporting the
acquisition of Slavic, East European,
Hebrew, and Yiddish materials. Over the
years Igor has processed thousands of
books received through exchange
agreements or ordered from government bookstores in the former USSR,
demonstrating enthusiasm and care in
building CUL’s Slavic collection. Since
the materials he processed pose special
problems because of transliteration
variations and different publishing
standards of foreign publications, his
language expertise and problem-solving
skills have been an extremely valuable
asset to the department.
His immediate plans include a trip to
Florida with his wife Gita for a much
deserved vacation, as well as a search
for a new winter dacha.
—Nancy Heliseva
Happy Holidays and best wishes
for a literary new year!
The illustration on the Library’s 2000 holiday card is from a group of Chinese export watercolors (ca. 1790-1900) among the rare works in the Wason Collection on East Asia. These
paintings were produced in the port cities of China for sale to Western customers in the
late 18th and 19th centuries. Works were done in watercolor or gouache and many were
done in sets such as trades, domestic interiors and gardens, boats, birds, mandarins, and
punishments. They were painted in workshops, using mass production techniques, so
that there may be more than one version of the same “original.” They may have initially
been sold in loose paper bindings, but frequently were rebound in Europe in more elaborate leather bindings.
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