From the Dean

You Belong Here. That is the UW Libraries’ message to students as we embark on the 2023-24 school year. Thousands of students come through the doors of the libraries every week, and we want each one to feel valued and welcome. Our spaces have been refreshed this year, and we are using signs, social media, and personal interactions to foster a sense of belonging with every student and the entire UW community.
 
As we strive to create a welcoming library for all, I invite you to join me in giving to the Library Impact Fund on Giving Day, October 25-26, 2023 (note: the link to our specific campaign will be live at noon on 10/25).

Your generous support plays a pivotal role in fostering student success and assisting them in achieving their educational goals. Your gift directly supports our students by:

• Creating warm, inviting spaces to study and collaborate.

• Funding our alternative textbook grant program, which saves students tens of thousands of dollars on textbook costs every semester.

• Providing training for student staff to enhance their skills.

• Expanding and enriching our core collection to support research, teaching, and learning.

Your support plays a vital role in benefiting every student, regardless of their major. It helps them find just what they need in the libraries, whether it is a comfy study chair, the perfect article for a term paper, a helpful librarian when they get stuck on a challenging research question, or a book to curl up with when the weather turns cold.

Add a Giving Day reminder to calendar

I want to publicly honor several long-time employees who retired from UW Libraries this fall. Dean Ivan Gaetz entered a well-deserved retirement in August after seven years at the helm of the Libraries. During his tenure, Ivan secured the largest donation to the UW Libraries ever, resulting in our first endowed position, the Carol J. McMurry Librarian for Academic Excellence. Ivan also led a library-wide reorganization in 2017 and was an undaunted leader during the uncertainty of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020. Finally, Ivan worked with other campus units and the Libraries’ development board to bring award-winning authors like Ann Patchett, Timothy Egan, Erik Larson, Jesmyn Ward, and Angela Davis to UW.
 
Interlibrary loan supervisor Dee Salo leaves UW this fall after 41 years of service to the Libraries. Dee is our longest-serving current employee, and it’s hard to imagine UW Libraries without her warm presence. We are grateful for Dee’s steady and remarkable contributions.

Assistant Dean Debbie McCarthy retired after 20 years at UW Libraries, where she oversaw tremendous technological changes in cataloging and acquiring materials. She led two migrations of the library’s internal systems (a major undertaking!). She also developed new workflows as daily work shifted gradually from printed books to electronic journals, e-books, and streaming media. Debbie will be succeeded as assistant dean by former Wyoming State Librarian Jamie Markus. I am delighted to welcome Jamie to UW. He brings extensive experience with budgets, library systems, and positive relationships throughout the state.

In other news at the libraries, the work of digital collections and metadata librarian Bryan Ricupero and library specialist Rachael Laing resulted in a third round of funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities for digitization of Wyoming newspapers. The two-year, $263,100 grant will support the ongoing Wyoming Digital Newspaper Project.

Seeing our library workers rewarded by their peers on campus and nationally for excellent work is always exciting. Librarian Janice Grover received the Excellence in Service award from the UW Honors College this spring, one of multiple awards she’s received for her contributions to student learning. Jennifer Kirk, UW Libraries marketing and communications specialist, and Emily Hooge, former UW Libraries student graphic design intern from Sheridan, were recognized by the American Library Association with a PR XChange Award for their work on the beautifully designed Conversations on Collecting Yellowstone conference program. 

As we gear up for midterms and the busiest time of the semester, we are mindful that this is also a season of gratitude and contemplation. We invite you to visit us online at uwyo.edu/libraries or in person at the library to learn, create, and relax. You belong here, too.

See you in the stacks,

Cass Kvenild
Interim Dean of Libraries