Emily Ford recently started as Assistant Professor and Urban and Public Affairs Librarian, a position she held in the interim for several months.

This spring, the library has a few new exhibits, both online and in the library building. The new digital exhibits are “Highlights from the Gates Collection of African American History and Culture” and “From the University Archives: The Vanport Extension Center 1946-48.”

The spring exhibit in the library, “The Gift of the Word: An Exhibition of Recent Acquisitions to PSU Library Special Collections,” celebrates the legacy of Gordon Hunter. His love of books and his passion for history inspired him to make a gift to the Library’s Special Collections through the Oregon Community Foundation that each year helps the Library acquire new rare and significant books and manuscripts to support the teaching and research at Portland State University. This exhibit, researched, curated and designed by PSU students and faculty, represents the active engagement and learning at the heart of Portland State.

This exhibit even has its own contest for students.

And have you found us on social media? PSU Library is on Facebook and Twitter, and PSU Library Archives and Special Collections is tweeting historic images from our archives on Twitter.

Tom Raffensperger, formerly our Assistant University Librarian for Public Services, is now Library Director at Westfield State University in Westfield, Massachusetts. Michael Bowman is serving as Interim AUL for Public Services until a new candidate is hired.

Adriene Lim, formerly Interim University Librarian, is returning to her home state of Michigan to become Dean of the Libraries at Oakland University in Rochester. Lynn Chmelir (formerly of Clark College, Washington State University, and Linfield College) will begin as Interim University Librarian on July 6. Assistant University Librarian Tom Bielavitz is taking on interim responsibilities as AUL for Resource Services and Technology.

Meredith Farkas is now assistant professor and Head of Instructional Services. Meredith, a 2006 Library Journal Mover & Shaker, comes to us from Norwich University in Vermont.

Jill Emery is assistant professor and Collection Development Librarian. Jill has a long career in acquisitions, most recently as the Head of Acquisitions at the University of Texas at Austin.

Kim Wilson-St. Clair is a long-time library staffer who was recently promoted to our faculty as Reference and Instruction Librarian.

Emily Ford is now Interim Librarian for the College of Urban and Public Affairs.

Liz Paulus will be our interim Government Information Librarian while Claudia Weston is on sabbatical.

Roy Bennett

After over 28 years of service to Western Oregon University, Roy Bennett has retired. Roy arrived at the Western Oregon State College library in 1982. He has been a dedicated advocate of the ongoing improvements to library services through a constant evolution of information technology. With his calm, ever pleasant demeanor, he has been a model of creative adaptability to the insistent forces of change. He has also been a champion of the union. He received the AFT – Oregon 2010 John Conner Memorial Award for his “selfless, spirited enthusiasm and devotion to the union cause.”

Also in October, Molly Blalock-Koral was promoted to Access Services Manager. Molly began at the Library as a student in 2000, and has held the positions of Holds Clerk, Billing Clerk, Student Supervisor, and Circulation Supervisor. She earned her MPA and BA from Portland State.

And in December, Nathan Mealey started as Manager of Library Technologies. Nathan received his MLS from Simmons College in Boston, and worked in IT consulting for two years before returning to work at the Simmons College Library as the Information Technology & Systems Librarian from 2006-2010.

And here are Portland State Library faculty publications from 2010.

• Steve Teich retired at the end of June.

• We have hired Jackie Wirz.  Jackie received her PhD in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at OHSU, where her dissertation work focused on collagen and collagen-modifying enzymes.  She has performed research in a variety of disciplines, ranging from fish virology to transcriptional regulation.  Some highlights of her scientific career include successfully mapping out the DNA binding footprint of a repair enzyme, solving the crystal structure of a protein trimerization domain, receiving a fellowship from the National Science Foundation, presenting a demonstration on redox chemistry to 500 girl scouts and breaking a wide variety of scientific equipment.  Luckily, she has also learned how to repair scientific equipment.  Although her research work has spanned over 15 years, her interest in libraries extends to her elementary school days when she volunteered to read stories at her local library.  A devoted book nerd, Jackie reads books from a wide cross section of genres.  She also collects different editions of her favorite book, Jane Eyre.  On a professional level, Jackie is fascinated by the interdisciplinary nature of library science.  She looks forward to using her research experience to enhance the user experience at the OHSU library.  Jackie will be at the PNC meeting, so those of you attending will be able to meet her there.

• Karen Lippert has rejoined the department after a 5+ year absence to fill a part-time, temporary position.

• Nicole Vasilevsky accepted the position of Scientific Data Curator at the OHSU Library on the eagle-i project.  She began work on Monday, September 20.  Nicole completed a PhD in cellular and molecular biology at OHSU in 2009 and has recently completed a post-doctoral research fellowship at Legacy Health Research.  She serves on the Advisory Board for the Bioscience Technology Department at Portland Community College, where she teaches the Introduction to Bioscience Technology course.  Her research interests are in the area of cancer immunotherapy.

Adriene Lim is now Interim University Librarian.

We’ve also welcomed Stephanie Moss as Office Manager and Amy Hofer as Distance Education Librarian.

All of these librarians were working regularly scheduled part-time hours before, so those part-time hours will be filled by Heather Glogowski, Becky Rose and Judy Chen, Chau Hoang and Leora Troper. We are lucky to have such a deep pool of talent to draw from.