As many of you know, Associate Dean and Chief Librarian Wilma Jones has announced that she will step down from her administrative position, effective at the end of this summer, to return to her faculty position in the Library. As a consequence, the Library will have an Interim Chief Librarian for the year 2017-2018, while a national search is conducted for Wilma’s permanent successor. In making this announcement, I want to recognize and thank Wilma for the outstanding leadership and exemplary service she has provided to the Library and the College over the past 15 years.
I am delighted to announce the appointment of Amy Stempler, an Associate Professor on the Library faculty, to serve as Interim Chief Librarian for the academic year 2017-2018. Amy has been a member of the CSI faculty since Spring 2008 and has served on numerous University, College, and Department committees including the CUNY Library Information Literacy Advisory Committee, the Verrazano-Macaulay Honors Faculty Advisory Committee, the Library’s Appointments Committee, and the LACUNY Library Instruction Committee. Since 2011, she has been the Coordinator of the Library Instruction Program, which introduced the College’s first for-credit library course, “Beyond Google: Research for College Success.” She has also taught Library Instruction classes throughout the College and has been actively involved in many exhibits covering a broad range of themes in the Library Gallery. In 2017, Amy curated Women on the March: Celebrating the 100th Anniversary of Women’s Suffrage in New York, which will mark the anniversary of the referendum’s original passing on November 6, 1917. Together with a strong interest in library signage, on which she has several publications, her scholarship has focused on historical and archival research, and she recently published “Communal Reflections: The Jewish Historical Society of Staten Island Oral History Project” in New York History.
Amy attended The George Washington University, receiving her BA in History in 1999 and MA in History in 2005. She earned her MS in Library and Information Science at the Pratt Institute in 2007, together with a Certificate in Museum Studies. Prior to joining CSI, Amy held positions at The George Washington University, Passaic Community College, and as Guest Curator at the Jewish Museum of New Jersey, among other appointments.
The College is fortunate that Amy Stempler has agreed to assume the important role of Interim Chief Librarian so that the Library can continue along the very positive trajectory established under Wilma Jones’s leadership. Amy will assume her interim duties on Friday, Aug. 25, 2017. Please join me in congratulating her and wishing her success in the year ahead.
