Forwarded on behalf of Beacher Wiggins:
Ana Lupe Cristán retires from the Library of Congress Hardly any of our PCC colleagues could have missed crossing paths with Ana Cristán at some pointvia in-person training, review, conference sessions, training documentation, videos, webinars, emails, etc. Sadly for us, September 3, 2015 marks Anas retirement after 35 years of distinguished Federal service. Ana began her federal service in 1980 with the Department of Defense. In 1984, she accepted a position as a Romance language cataloger at the Library of Congress. Anas special language skills and her cataloging knowledge made her a perfect fit for the Librarys cooperative cataloging team when it was formed in 1992. She spent several years developing training documents and presenting workshops to dozens of U.S. libraries participating the cooperative programs, and then on an international stage by providing training to the British Library and the National Library of Scotland. In 1999 she traveled to Costa Rica to deliver a presentation on cooperative catalogingthus began her service to the library communities in Latin Americaher true calling as an advocate and constant voice for the use of international cataloging standards and the fostering of cooperative programs in Latin America and the Caribbean region. Her work took her to some of the most prestigious libraries and institutions in Mexico, Argentina, Peru, Colombia, Brazil, Chile, Dominican Republic, and Guatemala. On several occasions she was invited to present workshops sponsored by the U.S. Department of State, in El Salvador, Nicaragua, and Argentina, and back to Europe for presentations in Italy and Spain. Moving to the Librarys Policy and Standards Division in 2005, she maintained relationships with the cooperative cataloging world, while also becoming deeply involved with the development of documentation for national and international level cataloging, specializing in authority records. Her work on six international Meetings of Experts on an International Cataloging Code sponsored by IFLA, included service as the assistant editor of five of the proceedings. She has been a critical member of the VIAF (Virtual International Authority File) team since the inception of the program, monitoring the matching and maintenance of authority records from the LC/NACO Authority File. Ana has been a member of the American Library Association, the Association for Library Collections and Technical Services, REFORMA (The National Association to Promote Library and Information Services to Latinos and the Spanish-Speaking), and the Seminar for Acquisition of Latin American Library Materials (SALALM). Attempting to identify all of the dozens of task groups and committees of the PCC that Ana served on seems an impossible task. From participation on the Authorities task group that resulted in the forming of the Cooperative Cataloging Council, to the transition to the PCC, Ana served on dozens of groups related to training, documentation, RDA transition, and automated conversion of the LC/NACO file, just to name a few. She held stints as interim Coop Team Leader, NACO coordinator and BIBCO coordinator often concurrently. Having worked personally and closely with Ana since the 1990s, I can attest to her collegiality, dedication, and unwavering support of the Library and of PCC. We will sincerely miss the non-stop energy and camaraderie that characterized Anas contributions to the LC family, and know that her PCC family joins us is wishing Ana and her husband Eric a long and relaxing life in retirement, enjoying the food, drink, travel, and connections to her many families. Beacher Wiggins Director for Acquisitions & Bibliographic Access Library of Congress
