Staff Spotlight

New Staff:

Steven Thorpe, head of circulation

Steven Thorpe joined the Langsdale Library as the head of circulation on June 16. Most recently, he was the senior librarian at The Mary Baker Eddy Library in Boston, Mass. At the Eddy Library he was responsible for the technical and public library functions and helped select and bring up a library system. From 1990 to 2000, Thorpe managed the Public Services Department, including circulation, at the University of Tennessee College of Law Library. He has also worked as a consultant for Kids First Vietnam, a nonprofit organization, and helped plan a Learning Resource Center to be built in Dong Ha, Vietnam.

Home (City/Neighborhood): Newark, Del. / Drummond Hill
My First Job: Bag boy at a Piggly Wiggly grocery store
Hobbies: Running, hiking and canoeing
Favorite Books: When She Was Good, Philip Roth; The Sweet Hereafter, Russell Banks; The Painted Bird, Jerzy Kosinski; Going After Cacciate, Tim O’Brien; The Hotel New Hampshire, John Irving, and many more.
Favorite Authors: Tim O’Brien, Russell Banks and Anne Tyler
Favorite Movies: The Sterile Cuckoo and Trip to Bountiful
Favorite TV Shows: Prime Suspect
Favorite Foods: Mexican
Favorite Quote: “I was not angry since I came to France
until this instant.” Shakespeare, Henry V
What I like Best About Baltimore: Penn Station
What I like Best About UB: First, the people I work with, second, the Athletic Club.
I Would Like to Ask Fellow Langsdale Employees: When is the new library going to be built?

Robin Rennison, cataloger

Hometown: Sedalia, MO.
My First Job: As a teenager, I worked grueling' early-morning weekends at a local, family - owned donut shop called Papa Jakes. I had to be at work by 4:30-5a.m.
Hobbies: the summer, backyard container vegetable/herb cultivation, reading, biking, yoga, travel when possible, my latest trip was to Thailand/Cambodia.
Favorite Books: The Poisonwood Bible, America the Book: a Citizen’s Guide to Democracy Inaction, Wicked
Favorite Authors: Margaret Atwood, Barbara Kingsolver, Isabel Allende, Tom Robbins…
Favorite Movies: Amelie, Annie Hall, The Royal Tenenbaums
Favorite TV Shows: Scrubs, Chapelle’s Show, Reno 911, Absolutely Fabulous, Daily Show
Favorite Websites:
http://postsecret.blogspot.com/ -It’s a Web site run by a Maryland man, encouraging strangers to send him postcards containing messages of their deepest secrets.
www.foundmagazine.com/ - People send in stuff they’ve found out in the world- letters, lists, weird pictures.
It’s all about getting to know strangers…
Favorite Foods: key lime pie, peanut butter, sushi
Favorite Quote: anything out of the mouth of Dorothy Parker
What I like Best About Baltimore: The American Visionary Art Museum, Fells Point, Hampden
What I Like Best about UB: construction

Departures:

Jim Foster, head of circulation

James Foster retired after 30 years of service to the University of Baltimore, on July 1, 2005.

Foster came to UB in 1975, the year in which the University became a state and upper - division institution, and was appointed librarian and adjunct associate professor of English. He received his A.B. from the Johns Hopkins University and his Ph.D. from Duke University. He received his M.L.S. from the University of Tennessee, where he served as assistant professor of English for six years before coming to UB. In his early years at the library, Foster was responsible for the recently received collections of the Steamship Historical Society of America.

Librarian Jim Foster (left center) examines the World War II vintage flag of the Joseph B. Eastman, a Liberty Ship built by Bethlehem Steel’s Fairfield Shipyard in 1944. Bethlehem Steel later bought the vessel, renamed the Portmar, and the flag is being presented by the Corporation’s VP for Steamship Operations, A.F. Cherney (right), to the Steamship Historical Society’s Alice and James Wilson. [University of Baltimore Newsmagazine, Winter 1977]

In 1984, Foster became Langsdale’s head of circulation. Again, his appointment came at an auspicious time as UB prepared to become part of the University System of Maryland. He represented UB on USM’s Circulation Task Force and, working with colleagues at all the USM libraries, was an active participant in the implementation of three successive integrated library systems. Beginning in 1999, he initiated the development of Langsdale’s popular electronic reserves service.

Foster’s library duties took him away from teaching, but in 1986 he became the faculty advisor to Alpha Chi, a national honor society that seeks to promote academic excellence and exemplary character among college and university students and to honor those who achieve such distinction. He retained this position until his retirement. “During my 19 years”, he recalled in his final newsletter message as advisor, “I have found [Alpha Chi] members not only intelligent but also unfailingly pleasant people. . .As I ‘hand over the torch’ to my successor, Esther Materón-Arum, I wish her happy years in dealing with a group both intelligent and good-natured.”

In his later years at Langsdale, Foster took on the care and feeding of the potted plants arrayed about the library. In retirement, he has volunteered to return several times each week to tend to the plants in the library. We look forward to seeing him on campus for many years to come.

Judy Avera-Flint, cataloger	Joan Wolk, reference librarian