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| Gwyn Anderson |
I've enjoyed a 20-hour work week. Can't imagine how I ever managed to do a 40 hour (and more) week. I certainly never had the Friday afternoon movie habit. The family is well. Our oldest granddaughter Catherine will be a junior at William Jewell College in Liberty, MO. She enjoys the smaller campus, a beautiful little liberal arts school, well ranked. Next spring (2006) she is going to her college's semester in Oxford program, so guess who's going to make her first trip to England ? Lauren, the younger, completed her freshperson year of high school. She loves school and is very active in the choir program. Sings like a little bird; received an excellent rating in a competition recently. RK and I are enjoying semi-retirement. With my work week, we're able to make long weekend trips. There was an article in the Austin American Statesman about the wildflowers in Big Bend, so we decided on Wednesday to leave on Thursday to see them for ourselves. Ever since Mike worked there for a couple of years, Big Bend has been a favored area for us. We drove up to Fort Davis, and went to the Stargazing party at McDonald Observatory. We drove into the parking lot, little realizing how dark, really dark it was going to be when we returned. The night star viewing was great; now I can tell you about all of the constellations (actually I'm still trying to locate the North Star and the Big Dipper). It was a terrific evening. There are few lights outside, low, red ones, designed not to disturb the viewings from the astronomer telescopes on the mountain. So now the program is over and we set out for the parking lot - no lights, where's that black car?
When we parked, there was a little yapping dog in the car beside us. We located the car because we heard that little barking dog.
The Brief is about celebrations. All of us at Tarlton are celebrating the fact that RMM won the Gallagher award. I'm celebrating because of my good fortune of working at Tarlton for these many years and for having made so many great friends. Celebrating because after a three or four year hiatus, the Champagne Party is again going to be held, and in San Antonio! Celebrating the fact that so many friends and alumni will be visiting us at Tarlton after, during or before AALL.
Barbara Bridges
Keeping with this year's Brief theme, I would like to report that I recently celebrated winning the Texas lottery; however, I'm afraid this still wasn't my year. We did celebrate big time when our planning group finished our neighborhood plan after 3 years of working on it. Unfortunately, we're finding out that this planning process is never really over! I'm now also part of a Citizen Action Group that is working with the city to produce a new Historic Preservation Plan for Austin. In my remaining spare time, I still work on my music, gardening and the neighborhood association. My cat clan now numbers four - one of whom celebrated her 20th birthday this year.
Lana Caswell Garcia
In the year between last year's Annual Meeting in Boston and this year's meeting in San Antonio, Bert and I have celebrated or will celebrate a number of special occasions. While they are not of the magnitude of Professor Mersky's award, they are important to us.
August 14, 2004 - our great niece Lexi Rachae Fowler celebrated her first birthday and we were able to be in Texas to share the special time with her.
October 5, 2004 - our first great great niece Kaylie Ann Delgado was born in San Benito, Texas.
October 23, 2004 - Brandon Starr, the son of some of our closest friends, married Laura Smith in Corsicana.
January 1, 2005 - Matt and Amanda Plata were married in San Benito. Matt, our older great nephew, is a pharmacy student at UT, and Amanda is a December graduate of UT.
June 3, 2005 - Bert marked his third year as United States Attorney for the District of Puerto Rico.
June 16, 2005 - I completed my second year as a resident of San Juan.
July 7, 2005 - My mother, Fern Hollaway Caswell, celebrated her 80th birthday.
Finally, though it does not really fall into the designated timeline, on August 9, 2005, Bert and I will celebrate our 30th wedding anniversary. Our tentative plan is to spend the weekend in Vieques, an island just off the main island of Puerto Rico. I look forward to getting back to Texas for this year's Annual Meeting and to seeing lots of familiar faces.
John E. Christensen
John E. Christensen is nearing completion of his 26th year as library director at Washburn University School of Law in Topeka, Kansas. Last August most of the family spent a few days in Austin in connection with daughter Lisa's wedding reception (she married an Austinian, Matt Gee). We also enjoyed a day cooling off at Schlitterbahn in New Braunfels. On Thanksgiving, the entire Christensen clan was together in Topeka. Now we're scattering. David, who spent his early months in the bowels of the old Tarlton library, while his mother, Carol, finished her MLS at UT, has a two-year old daughter, Liliana, and a three-month old son, Julian. Their little family is planning a move to Wichita. Rebecca, our oldest daughter, is completing an Americorps stint in Boston with plans to go to graduate school in the area. Lisa and Matt are finishing degrees at BYU. Karen, a junior at K.U. in Lawrence, plans to serve as a missionary for 18 months beginning next fall. Susan, a sophomore at BYU, is working in Topeka this summer. Deborah, a junior at Topeka High, is working at Dairy Queen. Rachel (8th grade) and Christy (5th grade) will be joining John and Carol in San Antonio at AALL this summer. We look forward to personally congratulating RMM on receiving the Gallagher Distinguished Service Award!
Nancy Cowden
As of March 2005 I have started my 25th year at the Oklahoma City University Law Library as Head of Technical Services. Before that I was at Tarlton from 1978-1980. For all who remember me, my son just got married this April 2005 at the ripe old age of 33 yrs. old. He lives in Las Vegas now. I just returned from a great trip to Vegas for the wedding.
Ron Day
Ron Day (Tarlton Class of 1976) and Maria Smolka-Day visited their family in Lublin, Poland, from April 16 to May 8. We arrived at the end of the mourning period for John Paul II and the beginning of the conclave which elected Pope Benedict XVI. Even Poles who are not particularly religious were moved by the death of a national hero, someone who gave them the courage to fight communist rulers. In Lublin people by the thousands came out every night to light candles along a road that had been named in the Pope's honor. The whole country was either glued to the TV or somehow got to Rome for the funeral. In my lifetime the only event to compare with it was the death of JFK in 1963. But unlike the sudden, tragic death of Camelot in midstream, this was the celebration of a long life of heroic deeds crowned with almost certain sainthood. Maria and I join everyone in congratulating Roy on receiving the Gallagher Award. Only he knows how many people he has helped along the rocky road of life.
Donald J. Dunn
Dear Tarltonites:
Well, this has definitely been an eventful year, but most of it seemed to be packed into the end of 2004. On September 2, I had successful surgery for prostate cancer. I had a great surgeon and was at great hospital. RMM sent out an email to the library community that generated may get-well wishes. I really appreciated hearing from my library colleagues. I have since gained back the weight I lost during my month-long recovery period. That's too bad.
The greatest news of all arrived on December 8, 2004, when Kevin and Wendy became the parents of Camden Jack Dunn. Stated another way, Cheryl and I are now grandparents. It's a life changing event – and all for the better. Jack is my middle name, and Cheryl's middle name is Jean. So Camden has my middle name and Cheryl's initials CJD. Because the three of them live only an hour away from us, we see them almost weekly. We consider ourselves very fortunate. And are we doting, spoiling grandparents? You betcha!
I continue to love my job and its southern California location. I have a great group of faculty and administrators at the University of La Verne College of Law. We are gearing up for another ABA site evaluation on September 18-21, 2005. If all goes as I expect, our law school will be added to the list of ABA approved schools in either February or August of 2006. The actual date depends on when we get on the ABA's calendar.
The other big “event” beginning soon is work on the 9th edition of Fundamentals of Legal Research and Legal Research Illustrated. The kick-off will be a meeting of the contributors at the AALL annual meeting in San Antonio. Although Mike Jacobstein did not work with Roy and me on the 8th editions of these two texts, much of his work from prior editions will continue to have his imprint for many editions to come. I miss him greatly. He was one of the true giants in law librarianship.
I look forward to seeing many of you in San Antonio where we can personally congratulate RMM for receiving the Marion Gallagher Award. It is recognition that is well-deserved long overdue.
Charles R. Dyer
After completing my term as chair of the State, Court, and County Law Libraries SIS last year, I began a process of reducing my outside obligations, in part hoping to clear time to do some scholarly writing. I had held positions on as many as eleven boards simultaneously within the last few years, in addition to my duties as Director of Libraries at the San Diego County Public Law Library. In the fall of 2004, we had to institute significant budget reductions at SDCPLL, as our revenues from civil court filing fees were dropping, even with the rate increases I was able to obtain. Several of my senior managers and top professionals decided either to move on to other positions or retire. So I decided to move up my own retirement plans by a couple of years, rather than try to rebuild the staff just before I retire. My wife Bert and I decided that we would sell our house in San Diego, use some of the equity to buy five extra service years with the California Public Employees Retirement System, and move to the Pacific Northwest to be closer to our daughter and the grandkids. Our daughter Chris had just had a new baby girl, Annabelle, in August 2004, to go with the two boys, 13 and 17. They live in Tacoma, WA, and we are presently thinking of Bellingham or possibly Seattle. As of June 1, our house in San Diego is on the market. Plans are to go north sometime after the AALL Meeting in San Antonio.
I plan to write about law and philosophy and legal informatics. I intend to use my experience serving self-represented litigants as empirical knowledge, to add to my theoretical base I have from my education and continual reading. So I am referring to my retirement as a self-funded grant. I also plan to do some consulting, mostly for public law libraries, and possibly for court systems, especially with regard to serving self-represented litigants. I will likely also continue to consult and mentor public law librarians regarding lobbying their legislators and budget deciders.
In what I consider a most unusual irony, I will be receiving the Marion Gould Gallagher Award this year, the same year that our mentor Roy Mersky will receive it—and I am retiring and he is not. In fact, a couple of years ago, I was in Roy 's office and asked him when he planned to retire, and he informed me in no uncertain terms that he would never retire. Just then, Gwyn stuck her head into his office and said they would have to “drag him out of here with his boots on,” whereupon Roy made a show of putting his foot on his desk to display the cowboy boots he was wearing.
I was completely surprised when I learned I had received the award, especially since the chair of the Awards Committee, my good friend and book collaborator Shirley David, would have to recuse herself from helping with the application. She would have been the person most capable of understanding my career and knowing who to call for letters. The person who actually did do the work was my friend Carmen Brigandi Jahns, who has been a social friend ever since Roy introduced me to her back in 1978. Carmen got my wife to supply her with my résumé, which, in the grand style I learned from Roy, is rather complete.
When Shirley called to inform me that I had won the award, she told me Roy had won, too. She said his response, upon learning he had won, was “I'm not retiring.” There are a couple of senses one could give to his statement, but they're all true.
| Mark Giangrande |
It was the band Rare Earth that sang “I just want to celebrate another day of livin'.” I'll start there.
Last December, while driving after an evening shift at the library, my car was broadsided by another car shortly after I exited the Bishop Ford expressway toward my home in Indiana. The force of the collision pushed my car about 15 feet off the road into a grassy area. The car that hit me wasn't so lucky: it bounced back to the other side of the road where it had a rather grizzly encounter with an oncoming semi-hauler. Although my car was totaled, I walked away from the wreck. The occupants of the other car were not as fortunate.
Life altering events can happen in a split second without any warning. With some small amount of changes in circumstances of the accident, I might not be here writing this for all of you. Since that incident, I have reason to celebrate a new library director at DePaul (Allen Moye); marking the sad occasion of the passing of a favorite cat (one who was with me for seventeen years and was in Austin, no less); the introduction of a rescued kitten into the household; and the reunion of a band in which I played for 4 years which unceremoniously broke up in 2003. I am looking forward to hitting the boards again. In a shameless plug, look for mp3's at http://www.staklofoundation.com. Much of my musical history is there.
Of course, having survived the incident in December, I can honestly say what a pleasure it is to be able to congratulate Mr. Mersky on being awarded the Gallagher award. It's most deserved. If that isn't worth celebrating, then nothing is.
Richard and Wendy Leiter
This year marks Rich and Wendy's fourth year in Nebraska and we're pleased to report that things are going well. Maddie (18) finished her first year at Nebraska Wesleyan University here in Lincoln, and Annie (17) graduated from high school in May. She's on her way to Drake University. Becky has just finished her first year of high school. They all are singers and actors, with a lot of talent. I look and listen to them in awe. I must have some recessive talent somewhere!
While our garden keeps me out of trouble after work, (if you want to see pictures, go to http://homepage.mac.com), professionally, various projects have kept me out of trouble in the office. My staff, as presently constituted is the best around, to the person. My Advanced Legal Research class had 58 students this spring! The fifth edition of National Survey of State Laws was published this year by The Gale Group and is doing well enough for the publisher to plan to release a seventh edition next year. (No rest for the wicked, I guess.) This year I began a blog, TheLifeofBooks.blogspot.com, more work than it's worth, perhaps, but it seems to be the only voice of reason in a world still hopelessly infatuated with gadgets, PC's and shiny objects – even if they're virtual! I have also been working hard on couple of committees for MAALL and MALSLC. The project that I'm most excited about at the moment is the Spirit of Law Librarianship, 2d. After a 3-year delay, we should have a proof copy by the time you're reading this. The patient contributors to the book have written some very fine works. I hope that you all enjoy it and buy many copies, not only for your own edification, but to support the Spirit of Law Librarianship Award.
| Jim McCue |
First and foremost, has to be heartfelt congtratulations to RMM as AALL gets it right in honoring our colleague, teacher, mentor and most of all friend and in his adopted state no less. In my travels over the years, I've often been asked by people outside of our profession, "....oh, a law librarian! do you know a Roy Mersky in Texas ? It's like ham and eggs, hot dogs and baseball, Sigfried and Roy (our Roy ).
My wife Kim and our sons Jim and Mike join in extending to someone, who literally played such an important role in our lives, all the best.
Kim (a.k.a. Karen ) is still a practising R.N. with additional certifications in Oncology and Med Surgery and just recently returned from the ONS National Meeting in Florida; I went along in a "visiting fireman" capacity----same convention hall as AALL several years ago. We, also spent the past years doing windows, roof, paint etc. as we begin to at least think about a warmer climate.
Jim, still eighteen, graduated last year and decided to take a year or two off before doing a degree in Hotel Management; his high school internship turned into a summer position and then a full time position with the Hilton in the front office. He recently received an Achievement Award (given only three times per year) with the General Manager remarking at the luncheon, that he was the youngest ever to receive the award. He absolutely loves the business, so we should all be able to get a good room pretty soon.
Mike graduates next June and is not only doing extremely well in school, but was on the football team for the first time this past Fall, seeing some action on both offense (TE) and defense (DB); the team won the New York State Championship at the Carrier Dome in Syracuse. We kept him out of football in favor of academics the first two years and now he's doing even better with football.
You figure!
The Hudson House book business has kept me close to family during some very important years, and while I miss all the traveling of years past, I missed only one football game, including playoffs, all year; it'll be back on the road in ' 06, with some weight loss and the Good Lord willing. What a great run it has been, since getting started with RMM in Austin and it seems like only yesterday.
Roy M. Mersky
The theme of this year's Brief, Celebrations, is certainly aptly named. I've celebrated the accomplishments of the Law Library's staff. It's been an exceptionally productive year.
There have been numerous brochures about our Rare Books and Special Collections, LPOP, as well as faculty, student, alumni, university and general public brochures about our services. We continue our Oral History series, the latest of which is that of Joseph D. Jamail. I encourage all of you to link on our homepage for details about all of these publications. With the assistance of Jeanne Price, Kumar Percy and other members of the Tarlton Law, I taught an ISchool course, “Legal Information Resources and Services” in the fall of 2004 and in the spring 2005. I served as local arrangements chair of the American Society of Legal History 2004 conference, held in Austin, October 28-30, 2004. Kumar Percy and Michael Widener assisted me, and we received compliments from the organizers for our efforts. Of course, we were supported by the entire Tarlton staff.
As far as professional travel, Rosemary and I spent the bulk of summer 2004 in Australia. We participated in the Australasian Law Teachers Association, and we visited several members of the judiciary and academic law community around the county. We met with the U. S. Ambassador Thomas Shieffer at the Embassy in Canberra. Ambassador Shieffer is a graduate of UT and we had met him when he was feted at UT on his appointment. The Queensland Supreme Court Librarian, Aladin Rahjemtula, hosted us in Brisbane and introduced us to many members of the Court. Also, Aladin arranged for a Court ceremony in my honor. During the year, we attended several conferences including the Guadalajara Book Fair and several law school sponsored events.
The year's publications have included a foreword for the latest volume in a series of biographies of Australian Supreme Court Justices, which was published in November 2004 and updated entries on Supreme Court Rankings and Library for the 2005 edition of Oxford Companion. Of course, now I'm busy accumulating materials for another volume of the multi-volume series, The Supreme Court of the United States Hearings and Reports on Successful and Unsuccessful Justices by the Senate Judicial Committee, and Don Dunn and I are working on the 9th edition of Fundamentals of Legal Research, which should go to the publisher in 2006.
At the Law School, I was appointed by the president of the Austin Council on Foreign Affairs, Professor Philip Bobbitt, as a director of the organization. Recently I was elected as Treasurer of the Texas Supreme Court Historical Society's Executive Board. I was under consideration for appointment to the National Historical Publications and Records Commission, but I received a call from the President's office that “the Commission was going in a different direction” and thus my candidacy ended in disappointment. Later I learned that two appointments were made so all I could gather was that “going in a different direction” was meant to kindly tell me “no.”
Personally, last fall I was honored to be invited to the dedication of the United States Courthouse in Seattle. My daughter Deborah's artwork had been commissioned for display in the building. Among other pieces, she designed the cut steel entry to the Law Library, Winding Ribbon, which has an historical subtext, which was particularly meaningful to me. If you visit Seattle, I encourage you to tour the building.
At the invitation of Sir David Williams, Vice-Chancellor Emeritus of Cambridge, Rosemary and I traveled to Cambridge this spring. We attended the Fifth Sir David Williams Lecture at Wolfson College on May 9. The lecture was given by The Honorable Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. We were included in several special events, and we especially enjoyed the dinner with Justice Ginsburg, whom I knew as a faculty member at Columbia.
Of course one of the highlights of the year was being one of the recipients of the American Association of Law Library's 2005 Marian Gould Gallagher Distinguished Service Award, which was presented to me at the AALL's annual meeting in San Antonio, July 19. It was a somber occasion. As I said in my acceptance speech, I felt as if I were reading my obituary when I read the announcements about my receiving the award. After I got over the shock of being recognized for an award that was given to someone, either retiring, retired, or dead, I was pleased by the number of friends who supported my nomination and by the many friends who wrote me notes of congratulations. At the meeting I gave three speeches; one, on our LPOP collection, another to the CIS/SIS group on “The Future of Law Librarianship: There is None”; and finally my award acceptance speech. I've decided that I've done my share of speaking engagements for the association, and I may skip next year's 100th anniversary meeting in St. Louis .
Family celebratory news: Rosemary became a grandmother for the fourth time. A daughter, Amy, was born this March to Mel and Ross Bunnage. She has an older, proud brother, Samuel. Rosemary's youngest son, Bill, visited us this spring with his girlfriend Airlie, and we gave them an extensive tour of Austin and the hinterlands, including Kinky Friedman's Utopia Rescue Animal Ranch near Medina. We are encouraging Ross, the third son, to visit us with his wife Jenny and their sons, Timothy and Tristan. This spring Michael Faber, Rosemary's nephew from Johannesburg, South Africa, visited us and then his sister Jolene was our houseguest in June.
My daughter Ruth, her husband Keith, and daughters Grace and Rebekah, accompanied by my other granddaughter, Sophie, traveled to Israel in June. Lisa, my eldest, continues to be grateful for good health and is active in Austin community work while maintaining her successful therapy practice. In addition to her artwork, Deborah has become a sailor. She just bought a sailboat, which is anchored at Lopez Island. On September 1 the entire family gathered at Port Aransas for my birthday celebration.
And sorrow touched me profoundly this year. My best friend, J. Myron Jacobstein, died on March 25, 2005. We were the original odd couple of law librarianship. We argued, disagreed, and aggravated each other. But he was my best friend, my collaborator, my colleague and my biggest critic. We shared the love of law librarianship, scholarship, and books. I mourn his passing and celebrate his life.
There have been many occasions to celebrate this past year, and I continue to enjoy my association with the University of Texas Tarlton Law Library and my friendships with Law Library staff, present and former. I am fortunate to be in good health and supported by a wonderful family.
Patti Rodi Monk
In celebrating Professor Mersky's receiving the Marion Gallagher award, I think back to January 1971 when as a newly graduated librarian I went to work for Mr. Mersky. Don Dunn, Jim Werner, Gwyn Anderson, Adrienne deVergie, Bardie Wolfe, John Petsch, Guido Olivier, Marianne Mabry, Kathy Garner, Elizabeth Saucedo, Bernice Satterwhite, Betty Cogswell, and Rob Cogswell were all there, deep in the heart of Texas. Some still are.
I'm at Oklahoma City University. Last summer I visited my daughter in Bangkok after she had finished her summer semester and was working as an intern. Bangkok is sensory overload, a combination of very modern and quite traditional. She graduated in December from the University of Miami in Florida and is an architect working in San Francisco - another good place to visit.
Pierrette Moreno
30 years! Yup, I've been working at The University of Texas for 30+ years. Last May I received a 30-year Staff Service Award from UT. While a student I worked part-time at the Benson Latin American Collection where my interest in library work took hold. I then had the good fortune to be hired for a full-time position in 1975 at the Tarlton Law Library. I was interviewed by Stella Chiang and Lance Dickson and didn't meet Mr. Mersky until after I was hired. I was not the first choice; the person selected decided to move to California. My first job was as a loose-leaf/pocket parts filer working with Loreto Espinoza, Charley Dyer and Frank Liu. Over the years I've worked in various parts of the library and am grateful for all I've learned from my colleagues. But, I am particularly thankful to Roy M. Mersky. He may have been "difficult" at times, but also supportive and encouraging. RMM celebrates 40 years at UT this year. So, here we are. Cheers!
Jonathan Pratter
2004-2005 has been a good year. David completed first grade magna cum laude. He was also active in the after-school soccer league. He was a member of 2 teams: the Scorpion Sharks and the Fuchsia Doughnuts. (I don't know how they came up with the latter name.) Big news: Gloria Avila (spouse) completed her LL.M. thesis, which was accepted. So she has her LL.M. degree from the University of Texas Law School! In other news, the Foreign & International Law Department is changing. We have hired a new assistant. His name is Matthew Grieder. He has his library science degree from Texas and his law degree from the University of Hawaii. We consider him to be a foreign and international law librarian in training. So much of my time is during the coming months is going to be devoted to training Matthew. Liz Saucedo will continue to work part-time on filing looseleaf supplements. After my venture last year into German at the Goethe Institute (a project that continues -- the Library's collection for Germany is one of the most extensive in the U.S. ), I have additional plans to expand my linguistic capabilities, with Portuguese and Hebrew in the picture. Portuguese is important because the Law School and Library have developed close links with Brazil. Our Brazil legal collection is fast approaching the comprehensive level. Hebrew is a roots thing. I will use this space for a shameless reminder that the really useful program on treaty research in San Antonio is the one I am on (H-1 on Tuesday afternoon).
Sara S. Reilly
I worked at Tarlton Law Library from 1970-1972. In fact, Gwyn Anderson and I were new hires together. I have been very fortunate to have stayed in touch with Professor Mersky and Gwyn since I moved away from Austin, and now that I have come back to the Austin area, see them occasionally, although not as much as I would like. It's just wonderful that Professor Mersky is being honored with the Gallagher Award. He is a really remarkable person, and it's been such a pleasure to have known him all these years.
Anne Rimmer
I am sorry that I will not be at AALL this year to see all my old Tarlton friends. I am still the Associate Director at Western State University in Fullerton, California. It's a wonderful place to work and I truly love every day there. I also am a Reference Librarian for about 10 hours a week at CSUF which is across the street and where my husband, Tony, teaches in the School of Communication. We spent all of the last Fall semester in London where Tony was teaching. It was a particularly wonderful experience for me since I was did not work at all. We did a lot of traveling and sightseeing and I caught up on all the reading I never had time to do. This semester, Tony is on sabbatical and about to go to New Zealand for a few weeks on a grant he received.
Children are all out of the nest. Jason, 33 lives in Florida with his wife, Trina, and their son Graham who is soon to be a year old. They are expecting their second child in September. Kate, 28, is living in Seattle, but thinking about moving to Sarasota with her friend, Gary. He is from there and is interested in starting a business in the area. Jessica, 24, is in the honors business program at CSUF. It's hard work, but she seems to be enjoying it. She and her cat, Junior, live in an apartment near the campus.
| Manuela C. Sanchez |
Eddie & I are doing fine we are still active with the CWV every quarter we go out of town to meetings, plus going gambling like every other month, right now I am taking care of my niece. She and my brother go with us to the meetings. The children are all doing fine, Jerry has 9 grandchildren, Carmen, with 1, John's son graduated last year. Mary Helen's son graduates this week, Rick is doing fine, Tina with her 2 teenagers.
My email address is brninell@aol.com. I am using my niece's email right now. E-mail me anytime, it would be nice to hear from any of you. You're more than welcome to give my e-mail address to any of my friends. Hope to hear from you soon!
Addy Sonder
My one-year anniversary at Tarlton just passed (June 1), and much has happened in that time. Last January, after working at the Circulation Desk for six months, I began working in the Rare Books Room full-time. Though I miss the Circ staff, the transition has been very positive for me. I have learned so much already, both about our collections and about what it takes to run an archive. With each piece I learn my enthusiasm for this profession builds. In August, I will take the exam to become a Certified Archivist (C.A.), and in preparation I have been pouring through the Archival Fundamental Series.
In news from home, my fiancé Matt and I have slowly begun to plan our wedding. After a year of engagement, we have finally given in to the barrage of “So, when's the big date?” coming from both families. Despite all the hints, it might be a while before we set a date. We like to take things VERY SLOWLY, and are still playing around with ideas.
Greyson Thrower on behalf of Rhea Ballard-Thrower
Howard University Law Library
Now that I am 20 months old, my mother thought it would be a good idea for me to compose our annual Tarlton Brief entry.
Aloha! Okay, maybe that is not what you expect to hear from the D.C. area, but I learned my first Hawaiian word on a trip to the 50th state this past spring. I had a lot of fun playing on the beach, eating pineapple and touring the islands. My grandparents went to Hawaii with us and we all had a really good time.
As for my parents, they are both doing well. My father and the other lawyers at his law firm were saddened by the recent death of their leader, Johnnie Cochran. But, the firm will continue the Cochran philosophy to provide justice to those in need. My mother continues to enjoy working at the Howard Law Library and I still enjoy being the staff's “law library baby.”
Oh well, it's time for me to go and find something to do that I probably shouldn't. But, that's what makes it all the more fun. Take care!
Margy Warner
Dear fellow Tarltonites:
In August I moved to Harvard, Massachusetts. I now live with my partner Dale Herman and his three children (ages 8, 13 and 15) from a previous marriage—an instant large family for me and a big adjustment personally!
Dale is from the Cleveland area, so we were able to visit Suzanne Young over Thanksgiving break. We visited Miami, FL in December and have fit in some long weekend trips to Maine and the Berkshires. Dale's brother Jordan Herman works at Baker and Botts in Austin so we now have another Austin connection and enjoyed our trip there last summer. We hope to make it back to Austin with his kids soon. I'm still working at the Boston University School of Management's Pardee Library as Assistant Head, Access Services and Economics Bibliographer. I'm also involved in instruction and reference. My commute is over an hour now, so I'm getting a lot of reading done. If you have any good mystery book suggestions, send them my way! Also, look out for the defibrillator in Tom Cruise's Mission Impossible sequel. My partner is a software engineer (specifically for defibrillators) for Philips Medical and was recently consulted regarding the movie!
I hope everyone is doing well.
Scott Webel
It's been a high velocity year of UFOs, vast underground caverns, rusty mining equipment, and musical saws! My partner Jen and I took a two week summer roadtrip in June visting New Mexico's Carlsbad Caverns, Roswell and its UFO museum, the Madrid ghost town with its Old Coal Mining Museum, and various nature preserves and swimmin' holes. We ended up in Ouray, Colorado, and enjoyed a small town 4th of July with Jen's aunt, uncle, and cousin.
I recently picked up a standard Ace hardware saw and converted it into a musical by adding a wood dowel to the blade's top. A bow repair man in Brooklyn (friend of a friend) sent me a cello bow and now all around my neighborhood you can hear the eerie warbling cutting through the humid nighttime air! By 2006 I hope to be able to saw out some waltzes or at least a sci-fi movie score.
Jen and my pet project, the Museum of Epherata, had a busy, expansive year. We wrapped up the "Skin & Bones Show" which opened right around the time I began working at Tarlton, then curated "Crystallization & Drift" which will close July 30th. The two shows are part of a trilogy, and "Machines" will open in March 2006, with matched funds from the City of Austin!
And now we're starting off on a new adventure with our first home! Besides giving the Museum some vital and long-awaited growing room, we're looking forward to tinkering around with the property by adding gardens, painting anything any color we want, converting a structure in the backyard into a workshop, and possibly constructing a tower or Ferris wheel out of fenders, bike frames, skis, crutches, and other load-bearing detritus.
Don Weeda
Am working at UT Austin, currently primary maintainer of *DEFINE Internals (routing and security for documents). Also accordion-player for a number of local bands playing non-local musics -- Rubinchik's (klezmer), 1001 Nights (Middle Eastern), Slavadillo (Balkan).
