LCCN, September 17, 2014
ISSN 2324-6464 Welcome back to LCCN. After a brief break over the summer, we have some exciting news to share about changes here in the Acquisitions and Bibliographic Access Directorate at the Library of Congress. Two new chiefs were hired over the summer, so we'd like to introduce them to you. Linda Geisler Appointed Chief of the U.S./Anglo Division April 14, 2014 Linda Geisler has been appointed chief of the U.S./Anglo Division in the Acquisitions and Bibliographic Access Directorate (ABA). She brings not only expert knowledge of library science principles but the proven ability to manage efficient acquisitions and cataloging operations. Linda earned both her bachelor's degree and a master's degree in library science from the University of Maryland. Before being named chief, Geisler most recently headed up the Literature Section in the U.S. Programs, Law, and Literature Division, where she managed a section of 20 staff that resulted from the merging of the former Children's Literature Section and the Literature Section. During that time Linda played a key role in the implementation of the RDA: Resource Description & Access cataloging instructions in ABA. In addition to overseeing the RDA training for her staff, she taught several RDA classroom sessions for the Cooperative & Instructional Programs Division (COIN). Geisler devised training and served as a liaison to two Cataloging-in-Publication partners, Queens Public Library and Brigham Young University, who handle children's and young adult material. She coordinated staff throughout ABA to implement a Minimal Level Cataloging Project that cleared processing of all children's and young adult books published before 2010. Prior to the Literature Section position, Linda supervised the ISSN Publisher Liaison Section for two years. In that capacity, she consulted and communicated with publishers, requestors, libraries, the United States Postal Service, ISSN Centers from other countries, and the International ISSN Center in Paris. During this period, she also served as the acting assistant chief of the U.S. Publisher Liaison Division. From 2003 through 2008, she was head of Serial Cataloging Section 1 in the former Serial Record Division. Linda has a strong training background, having spent 13 years as a senior instructor in the former Instructional Development and Training Division that became part of COIN when ABA reorganized. She taught a variety of courses and workshops and developed curricula and courses in support of Library Services' needs, and she prepared proposals and statements of work for external training providers. Outside of the Library, Geisler serves as chair of the American Library Association's Cataloging of Children's Materials Committee and as the 2014 chair of the Potomac Technical Processing Librarians. She has made presentations at these and other professional meetings and venues, has written articles, and she has earned many awards and accolades for her job performance and accomplishments. As ABA director, Beacher Wiggins stated that, " Linda brings strong people skills to manage a diverse operation that includes all methods of acquisitions-purchase, gift, exchange, and transfer; cataloging; and selection. During her career she has demonstrated ability to manage the varied activities carried out and materials processed in the division -monographs, rare materials, government documents, serials and microforms, and electronic resources." Randall Barry Appointed Chief of the Asian and Middle Eastern Division June 1, 2014 Randall K. Barry, the newly appointed chief of the Asian and Middle Eastern Division, is a second-generation native of Washington, D.C. He grew up in the Maryland suburbs and has lived in Arlington, Virginia, since 1977. Randy earned a B.A. in French and German languages from the University of Maryland, College Park, in 1976. His move to Virginia coincided with the beginning of his professional career at the Library of Congress, in October 1977, where he started as an acquisitions technician, working with purchased materials in Romance and Germanic languages, as well as Arabic, in the Order Division. He moved to cataloging after his first year, working as a cataloging technician with German and Hungarian language materials in the German Section of the Shared Cataloging Division. After moving to cataloging, he completed a master's degree in library science at the Catholic University of America, where Henriette Avram, (library automation), Merrily Smith (preservation), and Deanna Marcum (library management) taught. Barry rose to senior cataloger, first working with Romance language materials in the Descriptive Cataloging Division, and finally with French and Russian language materials in the Shared Cataloging Division, having earned a second B.A. in Russian from the University of Maryland in December 1985. He worked in both the French and Slavic Sections until accepting a position in the Network Development and MARC Standards Office (NDMSO) in 1987. During the more than 16 years he worked in NDMSO, Barry was assigned such important projects as editing the first edition of the USMARC Format for Bibliographic Data, finalization of the Chinese, Japanese, and Korean (CJK) character sets, and the development of the character sets for the right-to-left scripts used for Arabic, Persian, Hebrew, and Yiddish. He also spent 10 months creating the first compilation of the ALA-LC Romanization Tables, which became printed editions in 1991 and 1997, respectively. In addition, he helped to develop the Library's capability to import and use foreign MARC bibliographic records for facilitating and expediting cataloging. In 1988, he was selected as an ALA Library Fellow and assigned to the American Library in Paris, where he helped to automate the manual catalog of 100,000 records. Before he returned to the Library in late 1989, the online catalog of the American Library in Paris had gone live. After returning to NDMSO, Barry worked on projects related to the MARC format and library standards. He represented the Library at various national and international meetings, and he also conducted MARC and character set workshops nationally and internationally, notably two sessions in Crimea. In 2003, he returned to the Acquisitions and Bibliographic Access Directorate as head of the World History and Literature Section of the History and Literature Cataloging Division. He became head of the Slavic Section in that same division in 2006, where he remained until the ABA reorganization. He was then assigned to head the newly formed Russia Section of the Germanic and Slavic Division. In selecting Randy as chief of the Asian and Middle Eastern Division, Beacher Wiggins, ABA director, said, "The breadth of Randy's experience, training, and activities that relate to the work of ASME make him a particularly good choice as the division's new chief. His passion for language and his understanding of non-Latin scripts are impressive and will serve ASME well. I am delighted to have Randy join the ABA management team." LCCN is available in electronic form only and is free of charge. Please forward it to anyone who might be interested in reading this article and/or subscribing. To subscribe, send a mail message to [email protected] with the text: subscribe lccn [firstname lastname]. Please be sure that the text is the body of the message, not the subject line. And if you wish to see previous postings from this listserv, go to http://sun8.loc.gov/listarch/lccn.html
