We are pleased to announce the hiring of Teresa Negrucci as Resource and Acquisition Management (RAM) librarian. Teresa was previously Collection Assessment and Management Librarian at Colorado State University in Ft. Collins.  She also worked in technical services at the Getty Research Institute in Los Angeles and at USC Law Library, also in L.A.  Teresa holds a BA from Bryn Mawr College and earned her MLIS at UCLA.  She will be reporting to Steve Thompson. Her workspace will be in the Rock.

It is our pleasure to announce that Carina Cournoyer has joined the Brown University Library as the Scholarly Resources Social Sciences Librarian.

Prior, Carina was the Research & Instruction Librarian for Social Sciences in the Madeline Clark Wallace Library at Wheaton College. She has also worked as a Lecturer and Reference Librarian for URI and as the Library Commons Librarian for Providence College.

Carina has experience teaching social studies at the high school level in Maine and Rhode Island.An active member in ALA, ACRL, HELIN, Carina has also served on the Rhode Island Special Libraries Association (SLA) Executive Board.

She earned her BA in Anthropology / Archaeology and History with a minor in Geography from Rhode Island College and an MLIS from the University of Rhode Island. Carina is a PRISM fellowship recipient for promoting diversity in librarianship and outreach to traditionally under-served or diverse populations.

We are delighted to announce Christopher Geissler has joined the Library as a Project Archivist in Special Collections.

Christopher will be working on a two-year grant-funded project.  The National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC) awarded the John Hay Library funds to raise awareness of a number of significant collections, papers, and records held in Manuscripts and University Archives, including the papers of prominent literary figures, scientists, historians, Brown faculty and alumni, and cultural, political, and activist organizations.

Christopher will conduct a survey of archival and manuscript collections and create catalog records and Encoded Archival Description (EAD) finding aids.  In addition, the Archivists’ Toolkit will be implemented in order to manage archival and manuscript collections through a single database.

Christopher comes to us from the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute where he was Cataloger for Archives and Special Collections. Christopher’s desk is located in the University Archives, John Hay Library.

The Library recently honored staff members who are retiring under the University’s Voluntary Staff Retirement Incentive (VSRI) program. This group of twenty staff members has given over 600 years of devoted service to Brown University. They will be missed!

The twenty retiring staff members are: Millie Brown, Janet Crager, Lois D’Alfonso, Nori Duncan, Ron Fark. Jim Hannon, Ed Hayslip, Rick Hurdis, Michael Jackson, Elva Mathiesen, Ann Patrick, Leslie Patterson, Tovah Reis, Jane Shea, Barbara Spaulding, Sam Streit, Carol Thomas, Steve L. Thompson, Suzanne Williams and Lindsay Woodel.

Retirees Jim Hannon, Elva Mathiesen, Ann Patrick, Millie Brown, Lois D'Alfonso, Sherran Smith, Ron Fark, Tovah Reis and Ed Hayslip at the Library's Retirement Celebration on June 16, 2010 at the Faculty Club.

The Brown University Library is pleased to welcome Ian Straughn as the new Interim Joukowsky Family Librarian for Middle Eastern Studies. Dr. Straughn, whose appointment began on August 3, 2009, has studied the Middle East since his undergraduate years at Stanford University, where he earned a B.A. in anthropology with a minor in history, focusing on Middle Eastern history, politics, and culture. He went on to complete a Ph.D. in anthropology from the University of Chicago, working on the history and archaeology of the greater Levant during the Islamic periods. At Brown, he has taught several courses on Islamic civilization, which have explored the development of Islamic thought, social institutions, and material culture. Fluent in Arabic, Dr. Straughn is also very familiar with modern Middle Eastern culture, political science, anthropology, and medicine, having spent three years living in the region. As the Interim Joukowsky Family Librarian for Middle Eastern Studies, he will review and develop the collections that support the history and cultures of the Middle East and culturally- and linguistically-related countries, help integrate more Arabic and Persian language holdings to the collections, and work directly with faculty, students, and researchers to build the program in Middle East Studies.

Dominique Coulombe, Senior Scholarly Resources Librarian, has been tapped to chair the steering committee for the Collaborative Initiative for French and North American Libraries (CIFNAL). CIFNAL promotes and facilitates the cooperative exchange of ideas and resources between French and North American libraries through a working group formed under the aegis of the Global Resources Network of the Center for Research Libraries (CRL). Though still in its nascent stages, the initiative is working to improve access to French and French language resources and encouraging partnerships and inter-library loan opportunities between complementary collections. Coulombe will work with a governing body of six other librarians to institute these programs and strengthen a spirit of cooperation between research institutions.

“It is exciting to see the francophone academic and research community join the ranks of the international initiatives supported by the Global Resources Network (GRN),” Coulombe said. “I am looking forward to developing projects and collaborating with French and North American libraries to expand and enhance access to francophone scholarly resources.”

For more information visit: http://www.crl.edu/grn/cifnal/index.asp

The Board of Governors of the John Carter Brown Library announced last week the appointment of Edward L. Widmer as the new Director and Librarian of the John Carter Brown Library, effective on July 1, 2006.
Since 2001 Dr. Widmer has served as the inaugural director of the C. V. Starr Center for the Study of the American Experience and Associate Professor of History at Washington College in Chestertown, Maryland. In that capacity, he helped to create visiting fellowships, international exchanges, conferences, lec-tures, and other activities that made the Starr Center an important locus for the study of American history and the dissemination of research and scholarship.
Prior to his appointment at Washington College, Dr. Widmer served in the Clin-ton White House as Senior Advisor to the President for Special Projects, as Spe-cial Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs, and as Director for Speechwriting at the National Security Council. From 1993 to 1997 Dr. Widmer held an appointment as Lecturer on History and Literature at Harvard Univer-sity. He holds an A.B. in the History and Literature of France and America, an A.M. in History, and a Ph.D. in the History of American Civilization from Harvard.
Professor Widmer has published widely on topics in American history and politics. His first book, Young America: The Flowering of Democracy in New York City (1999), was the recipient of the 2001 Washington Irving Literary Medal. He is the co-author (with Alan Brinkley) of Campaigns: A Century of Presidential Races (2001) and the author of Martin Van Buren (2005). He is a contributing editor to The American Scholar and a frequent contributor to The New York Times and other publications.
Dr. Widmer will succeed the sixth director of the Library, Norman Fiering, who has served as Director and Librarian since 1983 with great distinction. Under his leadership, the Library has significantly improved and expanded the celebrated collection, increased access of researchers to its primary historical resources, mounted widely heralded public exhibitions, and published scores of resources on the collection.
The John Carter Brown Library is an independently funded and administered institution for advanced research in history and the humanities, founded in 1846 and located at Brown University since 1901. The Library holds one of the world’s leading collections of books, maps, and manuscripts relating to the colonial period of the Americas, North and South, from 1492 to ca. 1825. The Library offers fellowships, sponsors lectures and conferences, regularly mounts exhibitions for the public, and publishes catalogues, bibliographies, facsimiles, and other works that interpret the Library’s holdings.

Harriette Hemmasi, executive associate dean of libraries at Indiana University at Bloomington, will join Brown University on September 1, 2005 as the Joukowsky Family University Librarian.
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