Where did you go to college?

I received my BA in international relations at CSU, Chico and then went on to an MA in geography, also at Chico. Chico is a wonderful place to go to college and I believe it is the most beautiful California college campus I’ve seen. I then went to UW Madison for my MALS.

Tell us what your job at California State University Long Beach encompasses.

I have collection development, reference and instructional responsibilities for geography, maps, history, religious studies, philosophy, Asian studies and Jewish studies. I started my career at CSULB primarily in geography and maps. However that is only about 10% of my professional activity but an area I most enjoy. I do not spend the time I used to with maps and topics geographic, as history is my largest departmental responsibility. I conduct about 25 instructional sessions a semester, perform general reference work, and serve on many library and campus committees. For the last four years I was library faculty chair.

Where was your first job working with maps? 

I worked with Joe Crotts at CSU-Chico in the Meriam Library map collection. He was fun to work with and I learned a lot from him. That experience working for him caused me to change my graduate work from history to geography. It was that college job that started me on my way to map librarianship.

Do you have a favorite map?

Le Monde Politique. Institut Géographique National (France). 1974 Ed. Internationale. 75 x 121 cm. Paris. Scale 1:33,000,000. The reason: Before the internet age, it was the first world map, and the only one I’d seen, that had the country names as they called themselves, in Roman script: Misr for Egypt; Suomi for Finland, Bharat for India, Zhonghua for China;Magyarorszag for Hungary, etc.

How many jobs within the WAML organization have you held?

I was WAML Book Review Editor from 1991-1997, Vice-president/President from 1998-2000 and have been WAML secretary since 2006.

Where is your favorite place to go on vacation?

A drive up thru Big Sur anytime from September-November a great getaway, and if there’s time, continuing up north to Mendocino.

What’s the most fun you ever had at a WAML conference?

Alaska in August-September 2005. Interesting conference, great food, wonderful company with my roadtrip partners (Linda Newman, Yvonne Wilson, and Sylvia Bender) and spectacular scenery.

What do you like to do when you aren’t being a map librarian?

Read, hike.

What book(s) are you reading these days?   

I just finished Cormac McCarthy’s “The Road” grim yet fascinating book about an Armageddon of uncertain origin. It is unlike anything else in the “end of the world” genre in that it is very much un-science fictiony. I just finished “Lincoln’s Greatest Speech” by Ronald C. White which examines the historical context and thematic structure of Lincoln’s second inaugural address. And I’ve just started “Bohemian Los Angeles and the Making of Modern Politics” by Daniel Hurewitz. It concerns the early 20th century influence of the artsy, avant-garde district of what is now called Silverlake and how affected the social and cultural mores of Los Angeles.

What is your least favorite thing to do at work?   

Weeding. I struggle with the potential loss of information and the knowledge that somewhere down the road this item might be of use.

And what's your favorite thing to do at work? 

Instruction, and acquiring new books and maps that benefit our users.