A Letter of Gratitude and Recognition to Harold Billings and Joan Gotwals This month has seen the retirement of two long-standing members of the DLF's Steering Committee -- Harold Billings, Director of General Libraries at The University of Texas at Austin, and Joan Gotwals, Vice Provost and Director of Libraries at Emory University. Both retired from their libraries at the beginning of this month, and their energy, enthusiasm, and foresight will be greatly missed in the DLF and in the larger library world. I particularly value their kindness to me in my first year with the DLF, and a tangible part of their legacies is the valued and active roles their library staffs continue to play in DLF initiatives and Forums. Our very best wishes to you both for a healthy and active retirement, from your friends, colleagues, and admirers in the Digital Library Federation. David Seaman, on behalf of the Executive Committee and Steering Committee of the Digital Library Federation. ********************************** I take the liberty below of extracting some information from the news accounts that accompanied their retirements. Harold Billings has served the University of Texas at Austin library system in various capacities since 1954, and was Director of General Libraries at UTexas, Austin, from 1978-2003, and oversaw a massive growth in collections and in digital library technologies. During his tenure, the library collections grew from four million to more than eight million volumes, and saw the development of a rich and heavily-used digital library. Looking back at his tenure, Harold chose to highlight another achievement: "Of all the accomplishments of the past 25 years, I am most pleased with the development of a superb staff, many now recognized nationally for their expertise, who deserve the credit for major, continuing improvements in library operations, programs and services." During his earlier years at the university, Billings helped Dr. Harry Ransom and his staff in the acquisition processes that built the Humanities Research Center (HRC) collections, and he established the library's Asian and Middle East Collections in the late 1960s, as well as having a leading role in the Mexican American Library Program. His most recent publication is "Magic and Hypersystems: Constructing the Information-Sharing Library" (Chicago: ALA, 2002), and the University of Texas at Austin GSLIS established "The Harold Billings Fellowship for the Study of Library and Information Science" in his honor in 2000. ************************** Joan Gotwals retires after 14 years as Emory University's Vice Provost and Director of Libraries, overseeing the central library, plus the health sciences, law, theology, math and science, and Oxford libraries. "My experience at Emory has been very satisfying," she says, I've had wonderful support from the University administration and from faculty." Gotwals' time at Emory saw the creation of The Center for Library and Information Sources (CLAIR) in 1998, bringing together the academic side of information technology with the library. The InfoCommons area of Woodruff Library is one of the campus' focal points of research and service. "We've made Emory Libraries much more visible on the national scene, as well as within the Emory community," Gotwals said. "I think the libraries are becoming much more central to everything people do." Gotwals' tenure also witnessed the opening of the Marian K. Heilbrun Music and Media Library in 2001 and the Math and Science Library this past August. Next year, the renovation of Candler Library will be complete, providing a grand reading room for all members of the Emory community. The past 14 years also have seen the libraries' holdings rise from 2 million to 2.7 million volumes, and Emory's Special Collections in the areas of modern English language literature and African-American collections are among the finest anywhere, Gotwals said. Prior to coming to Emory, Gotwals spent 26 years working in the library system of the University of Pennsylvania, where she earned Bachelor's, Master's and Doctoral degrees in political science. She is also part of the original group of sixteen founding members of the Digital Library Federation, in 1995. David Seaman Executive Director, Digital Library Federation 1755 Massachusetts Ave., NW, Suite 500 Washington, DC 20036 tel: 202-939-4762 fax: 202-939-4765 e-mail: [log in to unmask] web: http://www.diglib.org/