Kati Arzeta
Kati Arzeta is a solo librarian working for CH2M HILL in Portland, Oregon, where she has been since 2008. She received her MLIS from the University of Washington in 2007. She does a little bit of everything and the favorite part of her job, surprisingly, are the projects that take her the furthest from the library. Currently, she is very involved in a sustainability knowledge management initiative. She is very active in SLA and in addition to being the 2015 Chair of the Architecture, Building Design and Construction Section, she is also currently President of the Oregon Chapter and Chair of the Committee on Cataloging. When not working or overcommitting herself to volunteer activities, Kati is busy engineering Lego pirate ships and space stations with her 2 boys, ages 4 and 8. Please follow her on Twitter at @limejellous. (Updated 3/2015)
Patricia Aspinwall
Patricia is a passionate and experienced research librarian who is looking for her next career with a company who wants someone to implement innovative information services. She is also very involved with the SLA Community. She is the Fundraising Chair for the Engineering Division and the Programming Director for the Toronto Chapter. (Updated 2/2014)
Giovanna Badia
Giovanna Badia is a Liaison Librarian at McGill University’s Schulich Library of Science and Engineering for the departments of Bioengineering, Chemical Engineering, Mining & Materials Engineering, and Earth & Planetary Sciences. Her responsibilities include answering reference questions, providing instructional services, and collection development. She previously worked as a Medical Librarian at Montreal’s Royal Victoria Hospital from 2004-2011. Her professional interests include citation analysis, database comparison and evaluation, information literacy, and marketing. She is the 2016 Chair of the SLA Engineering Division and is a member of the American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE). (Updated 1/2016)
Lynn Berard
Lynn Berard is Principal Librarian, Engineering & Science, at Carnegie Mellon University, where she managed the science libraries for over 20 years. She holds a B.S. degree from Eastern Michigan University and an MLS degree from The University of Michigan. In addition to her expertise as an engineering information professional, Lynn has taught graduate library science courses for Clarion University of Pennsylvania.
Lynn served on the Special Libraries Association International Board of Directors in the posts of Chapter Cabinet Chair and Director. She has also held many leadership positions at both the division (Engineering Chair) and chapter levels. Among her various recognitions, she was named a Fellow of the Association in 2003 and a recipient of the SLA Rose L. Vormelker Mentoring Award in 1999.
Lynn has been a speaker at a variety of library conferences and has authored the Engineering and Technology Section of the reference work Magazines for Libraries. Her textbook, Science & Technology Resources: a guide for information professionals and researchers, co-authored with James Bobick, was published in May 2011 by Libraries Unlimited. (Updated 3/2015)
Diane Brenes
Diane Brenes, Librarian at Boeing for a little over 25 years, has held numerous positions within SLA Engineering, including Award Committee Chair (2011, 2012, 2013). Diane participated as panelist at the 2010 conference session “Information Literacy in the Workplace.” An SLA member for over 20 years Diane wrote the Web Reviews section of Sci-Tech News for two years 2006-2007.
Diane has worked in Boeing’s Library Services since 1988 and currently works in the Huntington Beach Location. Her areas of expertise include engineering information research and business, and collection development, of which Diane leads the team. She has over 20 years’ experience working in corporate libraries and holds a Master of Library and Information Science degree from Simmons College.
Sharon Butcher
Sharon Lee Butcher recently retired from the Arnold Engineering Development Center (AEDC) Technical Library, after working there 15 years. Prior to that, she worked for two employers in the specialty chemicals and aerospace industry. Among her most unforgettable search efforts was one involving being on a focus group re: radioactively tainted pigment used in a pipe product. The pigment’s supplier denied any involvement, but an article retrieved on chemical analysis of the pigment fortuitously appeared, out of India, and with that in hand, her employer’s chemical stewardship chap saved the day. The supplier relented, fessing up to having provided tainted product. For her efforts, Sharon was given a nice gift certificate to a local restaurant, and life went on as the EPA and the companies’ attorneys worked out some sort of plan. She misses searching, but is enjoying spending time with her three dogs, helping fund canine rescue efforts, doing some travelling, and working on the novel of the century. Now with no travel restrictions, she hopes to visit Russia, Cambodia, do a trans-Canadian train trip, and spend long weeks in the UK, Italy, or France. She was stationed north of London, with the US Air Force, during the Vietnam Era, and she was a finalist some years ago for a job in Rome, Italy. No cigar there, but she hopes to drive from Turin, Italy, over the Alps, to Provence one day soon. Until that day, she participates in several list serves and still does the reference librarian thing occasionally on the list serves. (Updated 7/2013)
Christina Byrne
Christina Byrne is the Assistant Head, Engineering Library, at the University of Washington in Seattle. She has worked for over twenty years at the UW, beginning her career as an Engineering Reference Librarian in 1991. Christina manages the UW Engineering Library’s circulation, collection maintenance and technical services operations, and coordinates the building’s maintenance activities and facilities projects. She is the liaison to the Bioengineering department. She is also responsible for collection development in general engineering and standards, as well as collections and services related to patents and trademarks. In addition to the Engineering Division, she is a member of the Science-Technology, Leadership & Management, and Academic Divisions, as well as the Baseball Caucus. Currently, she is the 2015-2016 Secretary of the Engineering Division. As a member of the Pacific Northwest Chapter, Christina has held leadership positions as Secretary (1997-98), President-elect (2002-03), President (2003-04), Past-President (2004-05), and Director (2007-12). She has served on the Chapter’s Elections Committee, and she worked on the Local Arrangements Organization/Planning Committee for the 2008 Annual Conference in Seattle as Hospitality Booth Co-Coordinator. Christina is also a member of the Engineering Libraries Division (ELD) of the American Society of Engineering Education and the Patent & Trademark Resource Center Association (PTRCA). (Updated 3/2015)
Amber Collins
Amber Collins is the Chief of the Technical Information Center, a scientific and engineering library for the Air Force Civil Engineer Center at Tyndall AFB, located in the Florida Panhandle. She is also the STINFO officer, handling the submission and reviewing of scientific and technological reports so that they may be distributed via DTIC. While on the Science and Technology Reference Desk at UH-Manoa, she was once asked to locate the black bear’s diet during her third trimester and now can be found tracking down both the latest and greatest research in the civil engineering field or locating references from the turn of the century—the 20th century that is—and any time in between. She recently became the Engineering Division list-serv manager and has been active in various local SLA chapters and the Military Libraries Division since 2003. Outside of work she may often be found knee deep in a swamp, hiking anywhere in the Southeast, or venturing to parts unknown. (updated 7/2013)
Joan Cunningham
Joan Cunningham is the Corporate Library Manager at Simpson Gumpertz & Heger (SGH) in Waltham, MA. She has been at SGH for nine years providing research assistance to structural engineers. Some of the more obscure research involves finding historic building codes and product information. Prior to joining SGH Joan was a Librarian for an international public health non-profit. She was co-convener of the ABCD caucus from 2010-2013 and was the first section chair for the Architecture, Building Design and Construction Section in 2014. She obtained her MLS from Simmons College. (Updated 3/2015)
Sara Davis
Sara Davis is Librarian at Jacobs Engineering and has been there for a little over 32 years. During that time she has held various positions within SLA Engineering, including Governing Documents Committee (2009), Vendor Partnering Committee (2009), Vendor Relations (2010, 2011, 2012), Professional Development Chair (2009), Science and Technology Division Advisory Board, and Auditor (2010). Sara was a committee member contributing to the 2010 review of “Recommended Practices.” Her most recent activity was serving on the national planning committee for the 2013 San Diego conference.
Sara’s awards include the 2009 IEEE Continuing Education Stipend Award Winner, and the 2007 Engineering Librarian of the Year.
When not being a librarian, Sara is active in the Houston Horizon chorus, a member chorus of Sweet Adelines International. The chorus went to Hawaii to compete in international competition in 2013. She is a section leader within the chorus, serves on the Music staff as well as on the Management team for Houston Horizon. She also sings in her church choir and in her extra spare time, she enjoys scrapbooking. (Updated 11/2013)
Alice Desrocher
Alice Desrocher is an Information Specialist in the Library Resource Centre at ArcelorMittal Dofasco. ArcelorMittal Dofasco is a flat carbon steel manufacturer located in Hamilton on the western end of Lake Ontario. The Library Resource Centre provides information resources to support Global Research and Development projects that include developing new products and technologies and the continuous improvement of existing production processes. She is currently the Nominating Committee Chair for the Solo Librarians Division. (Updated 7/2013)
Cynthia Eastman
Cynthia is Technical Information Manager at Kennedy/Jenks Consultants in San Francisco which specializes in water and wastewater engineering and environmental remediation. A recently completed project is TechZone, a Sharepoint-based portal for knowledge sharing via blogs, toolboxes, and internal guidance documents. The weirdest question she’s had is to find the composition of squid ink and a close second is the groundwater impacts of cemeteries. Her membership in the Division affords her access to the expertise of a great pool of information specialists in engineering with opportunities for networking in person at annual conference. (Updated 7/2031)
Betty Edwards
Betty Edwards joined (or rather, “rejoined” ) Draper Lab in July 2010 as Senior Research Analyst. Interestingly enough, it’s where she began her career in 1978 as a library intern while pursuing her MLS at Simmons. Afterwards, she was hired as a librarian and worked there until 1983. Long story short—and fast forward 27 years—she found her way back home! Located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Draper is a not-for-profit research and development laboratory focused on the design, development, and deployment of advanced technological solutions for the nation’s most challenging problems in defense, aerospace, healthcare, and energy. Prior to this she was with the law firm Seyfarth Shaw LLP—initially as a law librarian and then in a firm-wide marketing and business development role. In addition to these two positions, she brings wide-ranging experience from the online provider world, having worked for Outsell, Primark/Disclosure, and Dialog. She’s been an active member of SLA on both the local and national levels and has held a number of leadership positions such as New England Chapter President, Legal Division Treasurer, and most recently an 18-month stint as Engineering Division Program Planner for the 2013 annual conference. Betty was named a Fellow of the Association in 2008. (Updated 7/2013)
Bernadette Ewen
Bernadette Ewen is the Director of the John A. Logan Library & Information Center at Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology. She and her staff help ensure students and employees achieve their full potential in class and beyond. Some of her current projects include expanding electronic access to key STEM resources, streamlining thesis management, working with faculty to truly enhance student information literacy skills prior to beginning their senior engineering projects, creating an institutional repository, and working on updating RHIT’s intellectual property policy. Prior to working at RHIT, Bernadette worked in the pharmaceutical industry (Sanofi Pasteur, Eli Lilly & Co.). She has been a SLA member for over 20 years. SLA continues to expand her knowledge, vision, opportunities, and professional network. (Updated 7/2013)
Vanessa Eyer
Vanessa Eyer is an Engineering Liaison Librarian at Penn State University for the departments of Chemical Engineering, Computer Science and Engineering, Electrical Engineering, and Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering. Vanessa holds a Master of Science in Library and Information Science and a Bachelor of Science in Mathematics. While in graduate school, she completed her fieldwork assignment with the Library of Congress. One of the highlights of her career was working for the Office of Strategic Initiatives at the Library of Congress. She assisted with the development of the National Digital Stewardship Residency program and upkeep of the Digital Preservation Outreach and Education Program. Her research interests include engineering students and library instruction and digital preservation and outreach. Vanessa recently joined the professional library world and has worked in the library system for over five years, a career which began when she was a library volunteer in high school. Vanessa looks forward to being a part of SLA and expanding her knowledge of library and information science. (Updated 11/2013)
Ashleigh Faith
Ashleigh Faith is the Taxonomy and Knowledge Manager at SAE International. She has a Masters in Library and Information Science and is currently completing her PhD, with a concentration in linking engineering knowledge and data, at the University of Pittsburgh. Ashleigh is an active member of the librarian and information professional engineering community and serves as the SLA Engineering Board Mentoring Chair. She has also worked with the Transportation Research Board, NATO, NASA, Caterpillar and Deere, among others
Her publications and conference presentations can be found HERE and HERE. (Updated 9/2015)
Kathleen Gust
Kathleen Gust began working at Frederick Emmons Terman Engineering library in 2008 after 21+ years at the Research Library at Hewlett Packard Laboratories. The Engineering program at Stanford is one of the largest at the University and Kathleen is responsible for supporting faculty and students in Civil and Environmental Engineering and Materials Science.
The library is actively working on replacing their print library with digital resources. Information on the library can be found at: http://library.stanford.edu/englib/more-about-terman-library (Updated 7/2013)
Gabriele Hysong
After having worked in the environmental field (specifically hazmat management) for 10 years, I decided to quit my job, sell my house, and pursue a degree in library science. My midlife crisis resulted in my return to school! I received my MLS in August 2006, with the intent to work as a medical librarian. I was, however, offered the soon-to-be vacant position of senior librarian at Rolls-Royce. I currently identify myself a serial solo librarian which means that when my budget allows it, I am able to have a contract librarian working with me.
As an aerospace solo librarian, I manage the budget, collection development, am webmaster, do marketing, training, and research; oversee interlibrary loans, and copyright management including training. I especially enjoy the challenging research questions that my patrons ask. I support approximately 300 engineers and senior managers including serving on the Rolls-Royce Indianapolis knowledge management steering committee. I am a member of the Competitive Intelligence, Knowledge Management, Engineering, Solo and Science-Technology divisions.
My major accomplishment since I’ve been with Rolls-Royce was transforming the library from a place no one ever used, except to hide, to a collaborative knowledge management center. I used an article that I had read in Information Outlook written by Penny Sympson in 2005 as a template for how I would transform my library into a valued resource. My bright airy library is now in a new facility and as someone recently stated, a “gem” in our new headquarters.
I am excited to be the 2015 chair-elect for the Aerospace section and sincerely hope that I will add value not only to the Aerospace section, but also to SLA. The encouragement I received from Mary Whittaker gave me the confidence to accept the challenge. Becoming a librarian is one of the best things I’ve ever done! When I’m not in my library, I have many avocations and interests that keep me quite busy. (Updated 3/2015)
Anna McGowan
works at the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission in Rockville, MD, as the Chief for the User Services Branch which includes the Public Document Room and the Technical Library. Since coming to the agency, Anna has devoted her efforts to raising visibility of the Branch and how its staff, services, and resources support the agency mission. Access to electronic resources has been expanded agency-wide while the Branch staff has devoted considerable effort to better management of the physical collection. The staff is recognized as for their leadership in knowledge management, taxonomy development, and federal budget management. Anna’s membership in the Engineering Division and the knowledge that she has gained from attending the Division’s conference programs have been invaluable in strengthening the staff’s relationship with their users, which has led to increased requests for information support. (Updated 7/2013)
Zac Painter
Zac is the Engineering and Data Services Librarian for the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, a position he has held since 2014. He is the current Fundraising Chair for the SLA Engineering Division and an active member of the New England and Rhode Island Chapters. Zac obtained his Master’s from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2013 and served as Webmaster for their SLA Student Chapter. (Updated 2/2015)
Laura Palumbo
Prior to becoming a librarian, Laura worked for 10 years as a professional civil engineer, focusing on hydraulics and hydrology in site development. With engineering and MLIS degrees from Rutgers University, she is happy to be working at Rutgers as the Chemistry and Physics librarian for the New Brunswick campuses. In addition to acting as a subject liaison, Laura also promotes and provides data services to the science community at Rutgers. Her current research interest is in supports to retain women in the STEM disciplines. (Updated 9/2013)
Edna Paulson
Is between jobs, since my position as Lead of the Information Dissemination Team at the NASA Center for AeroSpace Information (with Chugach Federal Solutions) was defunded in May. However, I’m happy to continue as 2013 Chair-elect of the Aerospace Section. I’m also active in the Maryland Chapter, where I was president in 2007 and was named a Chapter Champion in 2011. My career has mostly been in research and reference, with some overtones of analysis and marketing. In my most recent position, my team handled the NASA STI (Scientific and Technical Information) Help Desk, and I had the pleasure of sharing information about NASA databases and reports with a lot of other members of the Aerospace Section and Engineering Division. Earlier, while at the American Petroleum Institute, I met many energy company librarians through the Petroleum and Energy Resources Division. DPER honored me with its Special Achievement Award in 2006. I’ve met so many great people through SLA who have become valuable contacts and friends, and I hope to continue to share information in ways that are rewarding on both sides. (Updated 8/2013)
Jean Piety
I retired January 31, 2008 after 50 1/2 years at the Cleveland Public Library with the last 28 1/2 years as Manager of the Science and Technology Department. Two highlights of my career in CPL cover donations to the Science and Technology Dept from the Western Reserve Kennel Club (WRKC) and the Materials Handling Collection of shop manuals and parts catalogs. The WRKC members started donating time and money in the early 1960s. By 1980, I supervised the annual monetary donation to maintain the collection, with the result of having one of the largest dog collections in the country. Businessman Ed Pommerening collected materials handling equipment shop manuals and parts catalogs going back to that industry’s inception in the 1930s. By January, he donated 16 bankers’ boxes, whose contents the staff was still inventorying when I retired. It is truly an impressive collection. He based his decision on the conviction that we would properly archive and make the collection available to a worldwide audience. I want to maintain my contact in the Engineering Division. Thank goodness for email. There must be something sexy about engineering. Retirement has been an adjustment but as one friend’s card said: “Jean, people like you don’t really retire, they just stay busy in comfy clothes.” (Updated 6/2013)
Chris Profiri
Chris is working at Anderson Associates Consulting Engineers in Edmonton, Alberta. Chris serves as a researcher and librarian for this forensic engineering firm which has a library containing a wide variety of materials. Files at this office include property claims, motor vehicle accidents, patents and patent infringement, metallurgy testing and failures, and design. The research problems are continually changing and challenging. Her main concern is to create a library system which will meet the needs of the individual engineers. (Updated 7/2013)
Pat Ricci
I retired in 1996 and have spent these years being a Gramma to 5 grandchildren (12-18 years) and volunteered in their daycare facility, preschool, and kindergarten, and then stayed in first grade, and now am volunteering back in the daycare facility with 6-month to 12-month infants. (Rocking babies is relaxing!)
Major focus of my professional career was Standards. My job descriptions included: Itinerant Librarian or Standards Queen. Nineteen years as Reference Librarian at James Jerome Hill Reference Library (St. Paul), 10 years as a substitute (temporary assignments) Reference Librarian (3M Business and Engineering libraries), Honeywell, Pillsbury, U of MN Engineering Library, FMC Northern Ordnance Company. Awards: Standards Engineering Society award, Special Libraries Association Engineering Division Librarian of the year (1996). Instructor at Special Libraries Association CE courses on Standards. Organized Twin Cities Standards Cooperative (Librarians in Twin Cities who had Standards in their collections).
Published Standards: a resource and guide to Standards Associations, two editions (1990, 1991). Chapters in several books related to Standards information.
Major current projects: Family History for my husband’s family since 1975 and expanded to cover all Italians connected to Cumberland, Wisconsin. Expanded searching to cover Twin Cities Area Italians and Iron Range. Also involved in Festa Italiana MN as co-chair of the Italian Heritage Committee. (Updated 7/2013)
Erin Rust
Erin is a librarian for Raytheon Missile Systems in Tucson, AZ. She’s been there since 2006 and before that she worked at University of Arizona, which is also where she got her library degree. When asked what is her favorite part about being a technical librarian, Erin says the most interesting part of her job are requests for research. These research requests are on topics that are complex, scientific and innovative. These requests require hunting for resources that are often foreign or very old, which makes procuring them a challenge. Having a job where you can work as librarian, but that is consistently new and challenging is Erin’s true calling. Networking and meeting other librarians is what makes belonging to SLA for the last 7 years worthwhile. (Updated 7/2013)
Andy Shimp
Andy has served as the Engineering & Applied Science Librarian at Yale University since 1995. While in this position, he has had the opportunity to regularly engage in a variety of duties including administration, collection development and management, reference and instruction. He also serves as subject specialist for chemistry and mathematics. Andy has been a member of the SLA Engineering Division since 1998, as well as a member of the SLA PAM Division. From 2008-2010 he served as Treasurer for the Engineering Division. He completed an appointment as co-moderator for the PAM Mathematics Roundtable for the 2012 Chicago conference. He is also a member of the Engineering Libraries Division (ELD) of the American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE). At ASEE ELD, he has been elected to leadership positions including Secretary/Treasurer, Program Chair, Division Chair and Past Chair/Chair of the Nominating Committee. Andy coordinated the ELD program for the 2004 ASEE Annual Conference in Salt Lake City which included a plenary session and seven technical sessions. He has served on professional advisory groups for Compendex Scope and Coverage, ACM, CRC, Inspec, IEEE, and SPIE. (Updated 8/2013)
Becca Smith
Becca Smith is Librarian and Archivist at Wiss, Janney, Elstner Associates, Inc. (WJE) in Northbrook, IL. She is currently Chair-elect of the Architecture, Building Design and Construction section of the SLA Engineering Division. Becca received her MLIS from Dominican University in 2012 and became a Certified Archivist in 2014. (Updated 5/2015)
Penny Sympson
Has worked at Wiss, Janney, Elstner Associates, Inc., a forensic engineering firm headquartered in Northbrook, IL since 2001. At WJE, she manages the corporate library, which contains over ten thousand engineering related materials, with an emphasis on bridges, concrete repair, and structural steel. She maintains the collection of codes, testing standards, and material specifications. She manages the library’s administrative staff, the library’s intranet page, and performs research for over 250 professional engineers, architects, and materials scientists. In 2010, she was selected to participate in Synergy: The Illinois Library Leadership Initiative. She currently serves as the 2013 Engineering Division Chair, has served as the KM Division List Administrator since 2010 and was a director on the North Suburban Library System (NSLS) Board before it merged with other Illinois systems in 2011. She was named a Library Journal Mover and Shaker in 2008 and received the SLA-Illinois Chapter Library Champion award that same year. Prior to joining WJE, Penny spent three years as a reference librarian at a busy suburban public library and spent eight years as an economist for the Commodities Futures Trading Commission (government agency) researching financial and agricultural markets. (Updated 7/2013)
Beth Thomsett-Scott
Beth is the Interim Head for the University of North Texas Libraries’ Discovery Park Library which serves the Colleges of Engineering and Information. She has worked for the UNT Libraries over the last 12 years beginning as the Chemistry Librarian and moving to her current position. Educated in Canada with a B.Sc. and M.Sc. in Agriculture, and an MLIS from the University of Western Ontario, Beth moved with her family in 2001 seeking warmer climes. Beth is passionate about high quality public services, web site usability, and user satisfaction. She has published in a variety of journals and is the editor of two books on libraries and social media. Although new to SLA and DENG, Beth is bringing her enthusiasm for the profession along with her and looking forward to serving DENG and engineering/science librarians. In her spare time, Beth enjoys hanging out with her daughter and cats or day tripping to places unexplored. (Updated 8/2013)
Dan Trefethen
Dan Trefethen provides knowledge management services for the Airplane Systems group in Boeing Commercial Airplanes, in Everett, Washington. Prior to this he was the web content owner on a defense program for the Boeing Company. He also ran a library in the field of air traffic management for Boeing. Dan joined the Engineering Division as his original division in 1978 when he worked for an architecture & engineering firm. Dan has volunteered a lot for SLA, and was the SLA Treasurer from 2010-2012. In 2013, he was honored at the annual conference with the John Cotton Dana award, SLA’s most prestigious award for lifetime achievement. (Updated 7/2013)
Karen Vagts
Although Karen did not become a formal member of the LIS profession until 2008, when she graduated from Simmons, she has been interested in information design and delivery most of her working life. Prior to receiving her MLS, she worked for 15 years in various capacities at architecture firms, where she developed an interest in all aspects of information services. The architectural background has proven beneficial as engineers also are very visual and project oriented. Since 2008, Karen has been the engineering/business/mathematics librarian at Tufts University, providing information services to undergraduate and graduate students and faculty, among others patron groups. Her current focuses include engineering competency standards, data management, and preserving the “grey literature.” Karen joined SLA while a LIS student and most recently has been chairing the newly formed Engineering Division Strategic Planning Committee. (Updated 8/2013)
Don Welch
Don transitioned in 2013 from working at Bell Helicopter Textron to working at the Grand Prairie, Texas, campus of the Fortis Institute, one of more than 50 campuses of Education Affiliates. Don is helping nursing, surgery, and sterile processing technicians and assistants, and others, prepare now for careers in medicine. The move, from Bell to Fortis, was swift and unexpected. Don was laid off in June when the library at Bell was closed. He had been there almost 26 years [25 years and 10 months, plus a week or so]. He began at Bell in 1987 shortly after graduating from LSU with a Certificate of Advanced Studies in the Automation of Libraries. He earlier earned an MLS from the University of Oklahoma in December of 1985. This actually commenced the first transition of his professional life”from sports- and newswriting to librarianship. A journalism major at the University of Texas at Arlington, he began working at newspapers in 1976. When Don joined Bell, his father still worked there as an industrial engineer. His mother also worked at a library in Arlington, and Don always found it both interesting and an honor to combine the work of his parents in what he did at Bell. Don joined the Fortis Institute in September of 2013. (Updated 2/2014)
Mary Silva Whittaker
Mary Silva Whittaker is currently (2016) the Past Chair of the Aerospace Section within DENG. In 2015, she served as Chair of the section. Mary also served two two-year terms as Treasurer for DENG (2010 – 2013). In 2012, she was awarded the George Mandel Award from the Aerospace Section for her service to the profession. Mary works at The Boeing Company in Renton, Washington. Mary serves as lead cataloger for Library Services (she specializes in cataloging internal documents) and she is the steward of the enterprise-wide acronym database, originally called the Termbank. In 2015, Mary joined the enterprise Knowledge Management team under the Director of Knowledge Management and she works on the Boeing Designated Experts project and other collaborative knowledge sharing projects. She also remains involved in the Library’s Knowledge Management Gateways as a cataloger. See her contributed paper from SLA 2011 for more details about KM Gateways. For links to Mary’s other publications, see LinkedIn. Mary is a member of SLA in these divisions: Engineering, IT, Taxonomy, and the Aerospace Section. Mary sits on the editorial advisory board of Science and Technology Libraries; and she is a past member of the Europe Committee of the International Relations Committee (ALA). Mary welcomes others to connect with her via http://www.linkedin.com/in/marysilvawhittaker. (Updated 1/2016)
Ruth Wolfish
Ruth Wolfish, IEEE Client Services Manager, provides training for IEEE online products, distributes informational materials to drive usage, and answers all usage questions. She works with IEEE’s academic, government and corporate accounts in North America and Europe.
Her specialty is working with Intellectual Property issues and Patent offices. Over the past 10 years she has visited the USPTO at least 4 times per year, and has also worked with various European & Asian Patent offices. In 2011 she was an invited panelist at the AALL (American Association of Law Librarians) conference, the topic was “Searching for and locating Scientific Literature: Finding a Needle in a Haystack”.
Ms. Wolfish came to IEEE in 2001 from Lucent Technologies. Her 18-year career with Lucent and its predecessor companies included roles as Bell Labs Reference Librarian, management trainer and administrator of education, information specialist for business systems, and electronic content coordinator for Lucent’s Digital Library. (Updated 7/2013)