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Friday, Feb. 1, 2013 11:27 a.m.

GW hosts top candidates for head librarian

by Jeremy Diamond

Correction appended

The University is holding town hall meetings this week for staff and faculty to help GW pick its next head librarian.

The four candidates vying for the post will each present their ideas and field questions from participants. The first meeting, introducing Martin Halbert, the University of North Texas’s dean of libraries, drew about 30 attendees Wednesday.

GW narrowed down the pool from 40 candidates, and will select the hire next month. The post will steer the library as it undergoes $16 million in renovations.

The three other contenders hail from Pennsylvania State University, the University of Miami, and Rice University. The rest of the meetings will be held Feb. 1, Feb. 12, and Feb. 15, respectively.

Each candidate will also be interviewed by a search committee comprising library administrators, IT staff, faculty, alumni, and a student. The candidates will also meet with top University leadership, including President Steven Knapp and Provost Steven Lerman.

Two-time alumna and former deputy librarian Andrea Stewart has led GW Libraries as interim leader since the retirement of Jack Siggins last August.

This article was updated Feb. 4, 2013 to reflect the following:

The Hatchet incorrectly reported that Gelman Library renovations total $17 million. The renovations cost $16 million. We regret this error.

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Thursday, June 28, 2012 2:59 p.m.

GW appoints interim head librarian

by Sarah Ferris

Updated June 29, 2012 at 12:22 p.m.

The University’s deputy librarian will take over as the interim head of the library system starting Sept. 1.

Andrea Stewart, a two-time alumna, will replace long-serving University Librarian Jack Siggins when he retires in August. She will remain in the post until a new librarian is hired.

As deputy librarian, Stewart was “responsible for GW Libraries’ planning and operations,” according to a news release Thursday.

Upon taking the helm of the University’s libraries, Stewart will also co-steer the Gelman Library construction project with  Siggins, who is staying on as an adviser for the renovation after retiring. The revamp, which will relocate the building’s entrance to Kogan Plaza, is slated to start this summer.

When asked about her priorities for the upcoming year, Stewart said in an email Friday that she plans to “work with library staff to bring our strategic plan into alignment with the new university strategic plan.”

“I also plan to continue improving the communication and collaborative culture of the Libraries which supports the University’s and Libraries’ mission,” she added.

A national search for the next university librarian will be launched “in the coming months,” University spokeswoman Michelle Sherrard said Friday.

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Monday, June 4, 2012 7:38 p.m.

University librarian to retire after 17 years at GW

by Kierran Petersen

The latest rendering of Gelman's redesign, overseen by University Librarian Jack Siggins, features a new entrance through Kogan Plaza. The building will undergo construction to the first and second floor starting this summer. Hatchet File Photo

The University’s longserving librarian, who has overseen multi-million dollar developments to Gelman Library for nearly two decades, will step down this summer.

Jack Siggins announced Monday that he will leave his post August 31 after 17 years at GW. He will continue to serve as a special adviser to Provost Steven Lerman through December 2013.

“I deeply appreciate Jack’s skilled leadership as university librarian and his dedication to the university,”  Lerman said in a release Monday, citing accomplishments like acquiring the two-millionth volume for GW’s library system in 2001.

Siggins, who has most recently been spearheading the $16 million Gelman redesign project, did not immediately return request for comment.

Construction for the three-year project is slated to begin this summer on the first and second floors of the library, which will relocate the building’s entrance to Kogan Plaza and add more study space to these levels.

The librarian also headed up projects including the National Churchill Library and Center, an $8 million collection of books and research materials dedicated to former British prime minister Winston Churchill; the International Brotherhood of Teamsters Labor Research Center, archives that recount more than a decade of labor history; and the Global Resources Center, a research headquarters for political and economic records spanning the globe.

Siggins said he looks forward to spending more time with his family and focusing on personal research projects.

“I am confident that, under the leadership of President Knapp, Provost Lerman and the deans, the staff will be even more successful in service to GW and will reaffirm the rightful place of the libraries as the ‘heart of the university’” Siggins said in a release Monday.

Siggins was hired in 1995 after serving as a deputy university librarian at Yale University, with experience also at the Library of Congress, the University of Maryland and the University of Chicago.

Aria Varasteh, the library’s student liaison who graduated this year, said Siggins often sought out his feedback on the redesign. While attending meetings about the planning process, Varasteh said Siggins made a point to give him the floor.

“Other people would cut me off, but he would say, ‘Listen to Aria,’” Varasteh recalled about the discussions. “Siggins would tell me, ‘I want to hear student opinion on the final draft of everything.’”

“Of all administrators I’ve met, I believe [Siggins] cares about students the most,” he added.

- Sarah Ferris contributed to this report.

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Tuesday, Aug. 23, 2011 3:35 p.m.

University checking for damages after 5.9 magnitude earthquake shakes city

by Priya Anand

People outside of 2000 Pennsylvania Ave. wait and hope for cell service after Tuesday's earthquake. Michelle Rattinger | Senior Photo Editor

Updated Aug. 23, 2011, 4:28 p.m.

A 5.9 magnitude earthquake rocked D.C. at about 2 p.m. Tuesday, prompting University officials to check campus buildings for potential damages from the tremors.

Officials are “assessing the situation,” University spokeswoman Michelle Sherrard said. Mineral, Va. – the location of the quake’s center – is about 87 miles southwest of D.C. The rattling shattered potted plants at Gelman Library while bookshelves collapsed, shutting down the library for the rest of the day.

Gelman Library shut down for the day starting at 4 p.m., University Librarian Jack Siggins said. The building was temporarily evacuated around 2 p.m. and reopened almost an hour later.

“We got no information from the Office of Emergency Management as to what we should do in the library. All we got was something on their website, which everybody got,” Siggins said. “Their was no indication, in response to my questions, as to what we should do, except for one [University] police officer came over and told us to leave the building.”

A Global Resources Center employee and a patron sitting at a nearby computer were the first to hear a crash when a shelf holding statistical books from Asia gave way. Both the patron, who hid under the desk when he heard the crash, and the employee left shortly after the quake.

Cathy M. Zeljak, director of the center, said the bookshelf held references from China, Japan and Korea. Upon initial assessment of the tumbled texts, she said the damage wasn’t “anything that can’t be repaired.”

Siggins added that he sent a message to OEM to clear the fallen shelf.

University employees are not required to work for the rest of the day but can return to their buildings collect their personal belongings, the University said in an infomail. All events on the University’s calendars for the rest of the day are canceled.

GW will operate on a normal schedule Wednesday, according to a University statement. The statement also said no injuries were reported and damages are only minor.

The Vern Express is still running shuttles between the Foggy Bottom and Mount Vernon campuses, but passengers can expect a slower commute, according to Campus Advisories. Cell phone and Internet connections are also clogged.

Director of the U.S. Geological Survey Marcia McNutt told The Washington Post the shaking could have been a foreshock and that an aftershock would be more severe. The National Park Service has also evacuated and shut down all monuments and memorials since the earthquake hit, according to The Post.

Metro Riders can also expect delays because trains will run at a slower speed, the transit agency said in a news release, while inspectors check rails.

Hatchet reporters Andrea Vittorio and Katherine Rodriguez contributed to this report.

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Tuesday, April 5, 2011 10:49 p.m.

Holocaust survivor honored in Gelman Library exhibit

by The GW Hatchet

Alumna Bonnie Maslin speaks on behalf of her husband, Yehuda Nir, who was honored Tuesday evening at Gelman Library. Nir was unable to attend the ceremony because of health reasons, Maslin said. Elise Apelian | Hatchet photographer

This post was written by Hatchet reporter Ana Buling.

As a child, Yehuda Nir learned to recite Catholic prayers at the request of Nazi soldiers.

Nir, a Jew who escaped imprisonment and death during the Holocaust, hid in plain sight from the Nazis by purchasing papers from a Catholic priest that said the Polish Jew was a Polish Catholic.

Students paid tribute to Nir’s life and accomplishments Tuesday, unveiling an exhibit as part of their course, “Remembering the Holocaust.” The exhibit, based on Nir’s memoir, “The Lost Childhood,”  is now on display on the seventh floor of Gelman Library as part of the Kiev Judaica collection.

Nir’s friends and family gathered for the official opening of the special collection containing 1,700 books and documents about the Holocaust donated by Nir’s wife, Bonnie Maslin, an alumna. Nir was unable to attend the event due to health reasons.

Maslin said the only way to prevent another Holocaust is to link history with emotion. Feelings, Maslin said, keeps humans from becoming bystanders.

“[He] made a difference,” Maslin said. “And he was never a bystander.”

Hannah Hamill, the exhibit coordinator and a second year graduate student in the museum studies program, said Nir’s memoir was “unlike any other Holocaust-era memoir” she had ever read.

University Provost Steven Lerman said the exhibit “illuminates some of the wonderful aspects of the human spirit.”

“Certain things are better understood through stories,” Lerman said. “One’s personal story is an enormously powerful way of understanding what happened.”

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