People

By Staff -- Library Journal, 2/15/2006

Robb Heckel, previously Executive director of the Basalt Regional Library District, CO, is the new Director of the Elbert County Library District, Elizabeth, CO.

Beth Krippel has been named Branch Librarian at the Atascocita Branch of the Harris County Public Library, Houston, TX. She was the Assistant Branch Librarian at the library's Katherine Tyra Bear Creek Branch.

Susan Niewenhous is the new Director of Library Services at Lewis-Clark State College (LCSC), Lewiston, ID. Formerly Head of Public Services and Reference Coordinator at LCSC, Niewenhous holds a master's in library science from Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ. She replaces Paul Krause, who is retiring.

Lisa Rosenblum has been appointed Director of the Hayward Public Library, CA. She was a Division Manager at the Martin Luther King Jr. Library of the San José Public Library, CA, a jointly operated facility with San José State University.

Janice Simmons-Welburn, Associate Dean of Libraries at the University of Arizona, Tucson, has been appointed Dean of the University Library at Marquette University, Milwaukee, effective April 3. Associate Director Michael Pate will serve as acting dean until then. Simmons-Welburn succeeds Nicholas C. Burckel, who retired at the end of 2005 after ten years at the school.

Obituaries

Lewis Branscomb, former Director of Libraries at Ohio State University (OSU) and founding board member of OCLC in the mid-1960s, has died at the age of 94. Branscomb joined OSU in 1948 as Associate Director and Professor, became Director in 1952, and remained in that position until his retirement in 1971. He served as Professor of Thurber Studies at OSU from his retirement until 1981. Branscomb previously worked in the libraries at the University of Georgia, Athens; Mercer University, Macon, GA; and University of South Carolina, Columbia.

Gerald Hodges, Associate Executive Director for Communications and Marketing at the American Library Association (ALA), Chicago, died January 10 at the age of 61. Hodges joined the ALA staff in 1989 as Director of Membership Services and the Chapter Relations Office. Hodges willed a portion of his estate to establish the Gerald Hodges Fund in support of intellectual freedom. Memorial contributions to that fund, payable to ALA, should be sent to the attention of Judith Krug, Director, Office for Intellectual Freedom, American Library Association, 50 East Huron Street, Chicago, IL 60611.