Avery Boddie, previously Music and Dance Librarian at the University of Nevada Las Vegas, has been named Music and Media Program Head of the MIT Libraries, Cambridge, MA.

Queen’s University, Ontario, has appointed Mark Asberg, currently Chief Executive Officer of the Calgary Public Library, as Vice Provost and University Librarian for a five-year term effective May 1. Asberg succeeds Martha Whitehead, who stepped down in 2019 to become University Librarian, Vice President for the Harvard Library, and the Roy E. Larsen Librarian for the Faculty of Arts and Sciences at Harvard University. Michael Vandenburg has been serving as Interim Vice Provost and University Librarian.

Elizabeth Fitzgerald, most recently Director of the Free Library of Philadelphia's Culinary Literacy Center (and a 2016 LJ Mover & Shaker), has been named Executive Director of the Abington Township Public Library, PA.

Julia M. Gelfand, Applied Sciences and Engineering Librarian at the University of California–Irvine, has been named the 2021 Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) Academic/Research Librarian of the Year.

The open source/open access development nonprofit Open Library Foundation has appointed Texas A&M University Associate Professor and Service Design Librarian Elizabeth German as its Senior Program Officer, where she will support operations and strategic initiatives.

Marquita Gooch-Voyd, Assistant Director of the Clayton County Library System, GA, has been named Georgia Public Librarian of the Year.

Librarian and historian Guy McLain, who previously served as Director of the Lyman and Merrie Wood Museum of Springfield History at the Springfield Museums, MA, has been named Director of the Westfield Athenaeum.

Jennifer R. Nelson, previously Director of Minnesota State Library Services, has been chosen to serve as the new State Librarian for the New Jersey State Library. She will replace Mary L. Chute, who retired in February.

Alicia M. Salaz, currently the Associate Dean for Research and Academic Services and Senior Librarian for Carnegie Mellon University Libraries, Pittsburgh, PA, has been chosen as the University of Oregon’s (UO) new Vice Provost and University Librarian, overseeing five library locations at the Eugene campus and branches at UO Portland and the Oregon Institute of Marine Biology. She will start her new position in June, taking over from Mark Watson, who has served in an interim role since June 2019.

Denise Stephens, currently Vice Provost and University Librarian at Washington University in St. Louis, has been named University of Oklahoma (OU) Dean of Libraries January 20, and upon the approval of OU’s Board of Regents will step into the role May 24. Stephens also serves on the Center for Research Libraries Global Resources Network and the Greater Western Library Association Board of Directors, and as Chair of the Digital Public Library of America Board of Directors.

Charlotte Mecklenburg Library has hired Marcellus Turner, most recently Executive Director and Chief Librarian at the Seattle Public Library, as its next Chief Executive Officer and Chief Librarian, effective April 1, following the retirement of Lee Keesler.

Kelvin Watson, formerly Director of the Broward County Libraries Division, FL, has been named Executive Director of the Las Vegas-Clark County Library District, NV. Watson was recently honored with an official Broward County Proclamation commemorating his service and pronouncing Tuesday, February 9 as “Kelvin Watson Day” in Broward County.

IN MEMORIAM

Margaret C. Carty, Executive Director of the Maryland Library Association and a former Navy Communications Officer, died on February 4 of complications from cancer at the age of 82.

David Cully, whose career in the public library and educational publishing industries included serving as president of Baker & Taylor, died on February 14 at the age of 68.

Leora Marie Kemp, Founding Librarian at the University of North Texas at Dallas, died on January 26 at the age of 81.