We Wish Kathi Maio the Very Best on Her Retirement

“Let’s consult over books and a piece of paper,”  she earnestly said to a student. (1985)

It is not possible to adequately acknowledge a legacy of 29 years of dedicated service in single blog entry, however, that is what this posting aims to do. At the end of July, 2013, Kathi Maio will be retiring from Suffolk University's Sawyer Library.

Kathi has been instrumental to this Library, and by extension to Suffolk University, in more ways than it is possible to count. Her 29 years here have spanned the transition from dependence on print to dependence on electronic sources, and not surprisingly to those who know her, her knowledge of information sources - regardless of format, is not to be surpassed.

 Kathi's goal has always been to provide Suffolk students and faculty with the highest quality resources (while being ever mindful of the costs that a small university can afford to take on.) By virtue of her (nearly) 3 decades of service, a good portion of the print collection has been selected by Kathi. But it has been during her tenure as Assistant Director, beginning in 2000, that the Sawyer Library has seen a tremendous expansion of the electronic resources that are available to students and faculty.

A search of the Internet Archive (http://web.archive.org) for a list of the databases at Sawyer Library in 2001, yields a total of 37, as listed by publisher (Internet Archive: June 17, 2001, List of Databases: (http://web.archive.org/web/20010617223044/http://www.suffolk.edu/sawlib/oncampdb.htm). Currently, the library subscribes to over 150 periodical and reference databases. The success of this expansion, and the arduous negotiations which made it possible, are due to Kathi's efforts.

However, it is not enough to just have access to resources. Many of these sources are complicated, and Kathi has always taken (and created) opportunities to instruct library patrons on the best choice for their task, be it in a formal library instruction, at the Reference Desk, via email, via our LibAnswers page (http://suffolk.libanswers.com/), or through this blog for the Sawyer Library.

We wish Kathi all best of everything, and wish to thank her for her hard work, dedication, concern, and loyalty to her staff. We hope that she very much enjoys her new found free time to pursue and enjoy her wide ranging interests.

 The Staff of the Sawyer Library, July 2013.