SLIS Alumni News
Alumni > News > Past Years News
January 2012
Lydia Hellrich-Dawson (MSLS 2005) has been elected Treasurer of the Special Libraries Association's Taxonomy Division.
David S. Mao (MSLS 1999) has been appointed the 23rd Law Librarian of Congress, effective 1/4/12. He had served as Deputy Law Librarian since June 2010. For information see: http://www.loc.gov/today/pr/2012/12-005.html
Barry Trott (MSLS 1997) is now Digital Services Director at the Williamsburg Regional Library, after serving as Adult Services Director for the past 11 years.
December 2011
Megan Gorski Albritton (MSLS 2008) was recently elected to the executive board of the Louisiana Archives and Manuscripts Association.
Amy Bonaccorso (MSLS 2006), author of "How to Get to 'I Do' - A Dating Guide for Catholic Women" (Servant Books, September 2010), has won a 2011 Catholic Press Association Award in the First-Time Author Category.
Erin Haggerty (MSLS 2004) writes about the dependency on workplace recommendations in "Recommendation Intoxication: How We Became Beguiled by an Unreliable Workplace Habit and What We Can Do About It" (CreateSpace, September 2011).
Julie Arrighetti (MSLS 2000) has accepted a position as Chief, Research and Information Services, at the National Defense University Library.
Michael F. Duggan (MSLS 1996) of Potomac, MD, an assistant in the Department of Collections Management at the U.S. Supreme Court Library and an adjunct professor at Georgetown University, has been selected as the 2011-2012 Supreme Court Fellow assigned to the U.S. Supreme Court. His duties include researching and providing background information for speeches and reports, briefing visiting dignitaries, preparing analytical reports, and overseeing the Judicial Internship Program. His fellowship began this fall in the Office of the Counselor to the Chief Justice.
November 2011
Liz McLean (MSLS 2011) has concluded a three month assignment as a Knowledge Management Specialist working with the Portal Development team at DAI in Bethesda, MD. Working with KM and IT specialists, Liz migrated enterprise content from the Sharepoint 2007 global knowledge intranet into the upgraded Sharepoint 2010 environment, prepared enterprise taxonomies for use in the new 2010 deployment and configured user sites according to content owners specifications.
Marianne Giltrud (MSLS 2006) has been elected to the Special Libraries Association (SLA) Knowledge Management Division Advisory Board and Committee: 2012-2013 Director, Membership and Recruitment. Marianne served as Program Manager for the School of Library and Information Science (SLIS) and CUA Alumni Association's Centennial Celebration and brought to fruition this year-long university-wide celebration culminating in the October 20, 2011 Library Luminaries Panel Discussion. President Garvey was present and offered his congratulations. The online video is available here: http://www.youtube.com/user/CUASLIS#p/a/u/2/7YFqKPTRL5U
Marianne Giltrud also served as Program Manager and Seminar Moderator for the CUA SLIS program, "Library Science and Intelligence Analysis: Converging Educational Paths" on November 8, 2011. As a result of this discussion, CUA SLIS has received permission to hire a full-time faculty member whose focus will be Intelligence Analysis. The online video is available here: http://live.cua.edu/OnDemand.cfm?videolocation=/Library/convergingeducationapaths.flv
Rick Davis (MLS 1992) accepted a position as a Records Management Specialist with RER Solutions, as part of a team working at the U.S. Department of Energy.
Mary Kalfatovic (MSLS 1991) is founder/editor of the new online journal The Committee Room (http://www.thecommroom.com/), which covers all aspects of the literary world.
Lynn Scott (Scottie) Cochrane (MSLS 1980, CUA; PhD 1998 VA Tech) retired January 28, 2011 from Denison University, Granville, Ohio, as Director of Libraries. She starts a new job November 14, 2011 as Head Librarian/Project Manager for CenterScope Technologies at the Census Bureau Library in Suitland, Maryland. She is happy to be back in DC and is living in a cute row house on Capitol Hill.
October 2011
September 2011
Eileen Boswell (MSLS 2009) authored a chapter entitled "No Budget? No Problem!" in the forthcoming book How to Thrive as a Solo Librarian, to be released November 16, 2011 by Scarecrow Press.
Sharon Marcus (MSLS 1990), was recently featured as one of six winners of a contest for a makeover for M.A.C. Cosmetics' fall campaign. See http://www.maccosmetics.com/whats_new/6413/index.tmpl for details.
(Click "View Image" at top of content area for larger image with before/after views.)
+ Rest in Peace: Natalie Rapley (MSLS 1975), beloved wife of Kenneth Rapley and mother of Julia Rapley and Karen Rapley, passed away on August 17, 2011. During her career she had served as a Law Librarian for Covington and Burling, and Law Librarian for Bryan, Cave, McPheeters, and McRoberts. She was involved in fundraising and volunteer work for the Children's National Medical Center, the National Symphony Orchestra, and the Kennedy Center. Donations in her memory may go to Children's National Medical Center or the Kennedy Center.
Parvenah Bahar (MSLS 1968 as Parvenah Khosropur) has authored a book, "The Poet's Daughter: Malek O'Shoara Bahar of Iran and the Immortal Song of Freedom" (NY: Larson Publications, 2011). The book is a memoir of herself and her father, an Iranian poet who worked as an academic, historian, and politician in pursuit of freedom and democracy in Iran.
August 2011
Eileen Boswell (MSLS 2009) delivered a presentation on August 10th entitled "Avoiding Online Pitfalls: Copyright and Other Dimensions of Modern Information Sharing" to the American Public Transportation Association's State Transit Partnerships Conference.
Scott Lee (MSLS 1997) of Lancaster, California, completed a doctorate of education in educational leadership at UCLA in April 2011. The title of his dissertation was "An Exploratory Case Study of Library Anxiety and Basic Skills English Students in a California Community College District".
Sara Sonet (MSLS 1976), a Research Librarian at the U.S. Supreme Court, is the 2011 recipient of the Roy M. Mersky Spirit of Law Librarianship Award from the American Association of Law Libraries (AALL). See: http://tarlton.law.utexas.edu/slla/announcements.html
David M. Wohlsen (MSLS 1974) received a Paul Harris Fellowship from the Rotary Club of America in honor of his work in developing a cross-curricular nature education program for the 100-acre forested and prime-agricultural land campus of a new middle school in Bennington, Vermont, whose library and media center he helped design. Wohlsen retired in 2009 after 37 years a librarian, teacher, and adviser.
July 2011
Marianne Giltrud (MSLS 2006) assisted the DC Chapter of the Special Libraries Association (SLA) and the CUA SLA group with presenting an SLA Wrap-Up Session at the SLIS Information Commons in CUA's Marist Hall on July 13, 2011. Participants in the Wrap-Up Session who had attended the June 2011 SLA conference in Philadelphia shared their perspectives and impressions about the conference with Wrap-Up session attendees wishing to learn more about the conference.
Louis Abramowitz (MSLS 2005) had an article, "Eyes on the Bottom Line: Cost-effective Web Tools" published in the July 4, 2011 edition of The National Law Journal. The article is available to the journal's subscribers at:
http://www.law.com/jsp/nlj/PubArticleNLJ.jsp?id=1202499088977&Eyes_on_the_bottom_line_costeffective_Web_tools
Kathy Kelly (MSLS 1994) posted an entry about a positive take on unemployment/underemployment in the library and information profession on the SLA Future Ready 365 blog on 7/22/11, called "Info Professionals Are Always Employed". See: http://futureready365.sla.org/07/22/info-professionals-are-always-employed/
June 2011
Special Libraries Association (SLA) Conference
SLIS Alumni were well represented in the activities and awards of the 2011 SLA Annual Conference, June 12-15, in Philadelphia. Some SLIS alumni participants: Jennifer Klang, Head of Reference Services at the Department of the Interior Library (MSLS 2000) and James King, Information Architect at the NIH Library (MSLS 2002) presented a session on "ROI and Beyond" about returns on investment in libraries and librarians; James King was also named a 2011 Fellow of SLA. Bruce Rosenstein, SLIS adjunct professor (MSLS 1987), spoke at a Spotlight session, "Creating Your Future the Peter Drucker Way". Jennifer McMahan, Supervisory Librarian at the Department of Justice (DOJ) Library (MSLS 1998 as Jennifer Souza), was a co-presenter with a DOJ Library colleague on "Mining Public Records". Martin Kalfatovic, Associate Director for Digital Services at Smithsonian Institution Libraries (MSLS 1990) co-presented with a colleague from the Smithsonian Institution on "Going Mobile at the Smithsonian". Eileen Boswell (MSLS 2009) co-presented with other solo librarians at a "Successful Stories of Solos" session. Kathy Kelly, SLA Government Information Division 2011 Secretary (MSLS 1994) and George Franchois, Director of the Department of the Interior Library (MSLS 2000) provided support to the SLA Government Information Division sessions and meetings.
SLIS faculty and adjuncts featured at the conference included Dave Shumaker, Clinical Associate Professor, who co-presented on "Embedded Librarianship" with embedded librarians from the Marine Corps University Library and The Mitre Corporation; and Blane Dessy (SLIS adjunct professor), Executive Director, Federal Library and Information Center Committee (FLICC), who spoke on "Government Information Professionals: Now and Into the Future" at the Government Information Division's Annual Business Meeting and Presentation. Blane's session also featured a short video called "NewFeds Speak Up" from the FLICC NewFeds Working Group, which supports the development and advancement of federal librarians in their first 5 years of federal service. Karen Huffman (SLIS guest lecturer and adjunct professor), IS&T Manager of the Messaging and Collaboration Team of the National Geographic Society was named a 2011 Fellow of SLA. Karen also spoke at the Military and Government Divisions Unconference, and co-presented a session with Mary Talley (TalleyPartners Principal and Consultant) called "Building Successful Embedded Services Programs: A Strategic Approach".
Other News
Benjamin T. Almoite (MSLS 2009) is now a Librarian at the Virginia State Law Library, a division of the Supreme Court of Virginia, in Richmond, VA. In addition to sharing responsibility at the Reference Desk, Ben will be maintaining the library's automated serials system. He will also be responsible for the library's collaborative project with the eight Virginia law school libraries to digitize Supreme Court of Virginia briefs and appendices. And he will manage the library's contributions to the Chesapeake Digital Preservation Group, a joint digital preservation initiative of the Georgetown and Harvard Law School Libraries and the Virginia and Maryland State Law Libraries. Ben previously worked as the Reference Librarian at Keller and Heckman LLP in Washington, DC.
In Memoriam
Patricia W. Berger (MSLS 1974), former administrative librarian at the Institute for Defense Analysis, died on March 27, 2011. She had also worked at the PTO, EPA, and NIST throughout her career. She was an SLA Fellow (1987) and ALA President (1989-90) and had received the Catholic University of America (CUA) Alumni Achievement Award in 1988.
May 2011
In May 2011, Interim Dean and Professor Ingrid Hsieh-Yee made the following announcement to the SLIS community about Michelle Polchow (MSLS 2011):
On behalf of the faculty I am pleased to announce Michelle Polchow is the Graduate of the Year in 2011!
This award recognizes Ms. Polchow's accomplishments. She had an excellent academic record and distinguished herself by her contributions to SLIS and the profession. Ms. Polchow completed a practicum at the U.S. Geological Survey and presented her practicum product as a poster at the 2011 Bridging the Spectrum Symposium. As a part-time web content manager for SLIS for over a year, she successfully helped SLIS adopt the new CUA web style and transition content to a new content management system. She was also an active contributor to the SLIS Technology Committee. Ms. Polchow served as the president of the SLA student chapter. Under her leadership, the group won the SLA Student Group Merit Award for Creative Use of Electronic Resources. She is now a web content manager for US News & World Report and has volunteered with the DC Chapter of SLA.
Ms. Polchow will receive this award at the SLIS commencement that will take place at the Law School Atrium on May 14. Please join us on May 14 to congratulate Ms. Polchow on the award and celebrate the achievements of this year's graduates!
April 2011
Judith Russell (MSLS 1968) received a CUA Alumni Achievement Award at the annual CUA Alumni Achievement Awards luncheon on April 9th in CUA's newly renovated Father O'Connell Hall. Currently the Dean of Library Services at the George A. Smathers Libraries of the University of Florida, Russell had also served as Superintendent of Documents at the U.S. Government Printing Office, the first woman and second librarian to hold that position, where through her efforts GPO Access was created to improve public access to government information. Two tables of members of the SLIS community attended in Russell's honor, including Dean Ingrid Hsieh-Yee, former Deans Marty Hale and Deanna Marcum, the SLIS Alumni Board, distinguished alumni such as Sal Constabile (MSLS 1963), SLIS faculty and adjuncts, and students including Liz McLean, the SLIS rep for the CUA student chapter of the Special Libraries Association (SLA), who introduced Judith Russell.
March 2011
Barrie Howard (MSLS 2004), a Project Management Professional working for the National Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation Program (NDIIPP) at the Library of Congress, presented an overview of the NDIPP's establishment of standards, innovative tools and resources, and pilot projects, at a program of the DCLA Emerging Technology Interest Group on March 22, 2011, at ALA's Washington, DC office. For more information on Barrie's role in NDIIPP, see:
http://www.digitalpreservation.gov/news/2010/20100726news_article_howard.html
Lea J. Uhre (MSLS 2002), Director of the Executive Office of the President (EOP) Library, was the 2011 recipient of the Raymond Von Dran Memorial Award, which is presented at the annual Stone Lecture by the SLIS Alumni Association to SLIS alumni who exemplify the qualities of innovation, collaboration, and leadership in the library and information science profession. The SLIS Alumni Association is a chapter of the CUA Alumni Association.
Dr. Mathilde Rovelstad (MSLS 1960) left a bequest in her estate of more than $892,000 to add to the largest scholarship in the history of CUA's School of Library and Information Science (SLIS). Rovelstad passed away on July 2, 2010, and had been a professor of library and information science at CUA for 30 years. For more information on the Dr. Mathilde and Howard Rovelstad Endowed Scholarship Fund, see:
http://slis.cua.edu/finaid/rovelstad.cfm
February 2011
Renee DiPilato (MSLS 2002) has been selected as the new Central Library Manager of Alexandria Library's Beatley Central Library located in Alexandria, Virginia. DiPilato has two Masters degrees, one in Library and Information Science from Catholic University and the other in Public Administration from George Mason University. Currently, DiPilato is working on a Ph.D. in Library and Information Science from Simmons College.
DiPilato has worked as a Librarian at Alexandria since 2005, both as the Adult Services Manager at Barrett and Branch Manager of Duncan. DiPilato was key in establishing "All Alexandria Reads," the Library's citywide community reading program focusing on one book and dozens of events related to the themes of the one book. In May 2011, All Alexandria Reads will be in its fourth year as the Library's most successful "one book" systemwide programming.
As an active member of both the American Library Association and the Public Library Association, DiPilato has chaired committees and was selected as a candidate for the Certified Public Library Administrator Program. She is also a published author, contributing as a co-author "Four Futures for Children's Programming, Anytown Public Library" to Shaping the Future: Advancing the Understanding of Leadership.
As the new Central Library Manager of Beatley, DiPilato will bring with her the leadership skills and sense of community and outreach that helped to make the Duncan Library such a prominent part of Del Ray over the last five years.
January 2011
Rachel Hinton (MSLS 2007) of Mt. Rainier, Maryland, works as a contractor at EPA's library. She and her husband Matt are excitedly expecting their second child in March.
Cristina D. Ramirez (MSLS 2005) is a Doctoral Student in the Education, Urban Services Leadership program at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU). She taught Collection Development, CLSC 641 for CUA SLIS as adjunct faculty in the Fall of 2010. Cristina was re-elected to serve on American Library Association Council as a Councilor-at-Large for the term 2010-2013 and was promoted in rank to Assistant Professor as the Collection Librarian for Social & Behavioral Sciences at VCU. She is an annual reviewer for bilingual children's and young adult titles for the REFORMA Newsletter Resenas/Book Reviews. Cristina is a Co-Chair of the Multicultural Forum for the Virginia Library Association and was reappointed to serve as the University Library Services representative to the University Equity and Diversity Committee, VCU Office of the Provost & Vice President for Academic Affairs.
Christine Hall (MSLS 2004), Director of the Alexandria Law Library, recently participated in the world's largest paired kidney exchange at Georgetown University Hospital. Ms. Hall was one of sixteen people who donated a kidney in the 16-way exchange, which took place over a two-week period in November, at three area hospitals. Four of the 16 donors, including Ms. Hall, were non-directed or altruistic donors, meaning they were not related to or donating on behalf of any of the 16 recipients. Ms. Hall was profiled on the NBC Nightly News report, "Making a Difference" on November 2, 2010.
She and most of the other 31 participants appeared on The Today Show the following morning. Ms. Hall, who lost 40 pounds in order to participate in the exchange, returned to work in early December, and said it was the best experience of her life.
Dr. Ken Phifer (MSLS 1983) published his memoirs in March 2010: "The First Seventy-Five Years 1934-2009: A Memoir". Copies are available at the Rockville, MD Public Library and at the Montgomery County Historical Society Library. He notes that the chapter on library school brought back fond memories as he reached back into the past.
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