The Queens College Library has been fortunate to have a wonderful staff and leadership. As such, we are always happy to see the growth even if it means that people will move on to new opportunities. As this academic year comes to a close, we say thank you and good luck to three colleagues.
Kristin Hart, Chief Librarian and Associate Dean
We congratulate current Chief Librarian Kristin Hart on her appointment as University Dean for Libraries and Information Resources. In her new position, Kristin will facilitate collaboration across CUNY libraries; improve online access to information resources for students, faculty, and staff; continue the smooth roll out of CUNY’s new library service platform, Alma, which went live in August 2020; maximize the value of our CUNY-wide collection of scholarly, electronic resources; and build on, accelerate, and scale the progress that CUNY has made advancing open educational resources and scholarly communications.
At Queens College, Kristin focused on setting strategic priorities for the Library in line with emerging trends in academic librarianship, reimagining the Library as space, fostering traditional and emerging forms of research and information literacy, reenergizing relationships with key partners, and steering the Library through the coronavirus pandemic. Our loss is the University’s gain, and we wish Kristin every conceivable success and look forward to collaborating with her as she begins her new role at CUNY.
Jennifer Oates, Ph.D., Head of Music Library, Associate Professor
After 18 years as the Head of the Queens College Music Library, Dr. Jennifer Oates will be leaving us to join Carrol College in Helena, Montana as the new Library Director. During her time with Queens College, Jennifer specialized in user experience, while educating and empowering others, in addition to fostering connections among diverse populations. Her leadership style included team building, mentorship, and innovative problem-solving. At the Music Library, Jennifer was able to implement operational excellence working with a diverse staff to create a dynamic team that was fully committed to developing inclusive, positive user experiences and fostering community.
We would like to thank Jennifer for her dedication to Queens College and the Music Library and wish her success in her future role.
Obden Mondesir, Adjunct Outreach Archivist
Obden Mondesir has served as the Adjunct Outreach Archivist for Special Collections and Archives for the past two years. In this role, he conducted over 25 oral histories for the SEEK History and COVID-19 Projects and represented the archives in a variety of public speaking engagements (see a sampling of his work at bit.ly/Obden). We wish him well in his new role as Associate Director of the Barnard Archives.