Sue Collins

 Carnegie Mellon University

 Liz Colson

  California State University, Chico

Liz Colson has been a reference and subject librarian for Sociology and Social Sciences at California State University, Chico since 2002. Prior to moving to Chico, she was Director of Cataloging at the Houston Academy of Medicine-Texas Medical Center Library. Liz earned a BA in Psychology from Grinnell College, and an MA in Library and Information Science from the University of Iowa.

Liz enjoys working with students to help them with their research and information needs. Her interests include virtual reference, open access publishing, and reading (naturally! She’s a librarian!) 

 Sybil Finemel 

  QP Back-up Librarian

Sybil is originally from Johannesburg, South Africa.  [Yay!  Two South Africans on our editorial team!]  She graduated from the University of Witwatersrand, with a degree in History and English.  After receiving her MLIS from the University of South Africa (UNISA), she was first an academic librarian and then the library director at a private school.

Sybil has been working with the 24/7 Reference/OCLC QuestionPoint service as a backup Librarian since 2003.  She also consults on respective conversion of small to medium libraries.  She was a volunteer with the Virtual Reference Desk (VRD) service and is a contributor to Librarians' Internet Index (LII).

Sybil now lives in Los Angeles, CA.

 Jennifer Harbster

  Library of Congress

 

In 1998, Jennifer received B.A.’s in Art History and Anthropology from University of California at Santa Cruz (UCSC) and in 2002 a MLS from San Jose State University. During her undergraduate years, she worked at the UCSC Mc Henry Slide Library. In the late 1990’s, she worked as a research associate for the Silicon Valley office of the International Technology Practice of Heidrick and Struggles. Jennifer joined the Library of Congress Science, Technology, and Business Division in November 2001. In addition to research and reference duties, she is a Question Point administrator and the creator of the Everyday Mysteries Web site.  

 Terry Lynne Harris

  University of South Africa (UNISA), Pretoria

Terry Lynne Harris is a librarian at the University of South Africa (Unisa) Library in Pretoria, South Africa. Unisa is a distance education university, with no resident student body. Terry Lynne started working at the Unisa Library in 1979 and is currently a Subject Collection Developer in the Information Resources Content Management Directorate. She hails originally from Welkom, in the Free State province of South Africa. She did her schooling in Welkom and Pretoria and then studied for a BA (majoring in Latin and Maths) and a Higher Diploma in Librarianship at the University of Pretoria.

Terry has wide experience in the Unisa Library, having worked in the Stock Management section of the Study Collection (prescribed and recommended books), the Book Requests section, the Library’s IT section (as systems librarian for the inhouse computer system) and the Subject Reference section (as the subject librarian for Afrikaans, Dutch, Anthropology, Archaeology and the Unisa Centre for African Renaissance Studies). She was deeply involved in the design specifications, testing and implementing of the Unisa’s inhouse library computer system as well as in the subsequent implementation of the INNOPAC library system.

The Unisa Library, as part of the Gauteng And Environs Library Consortium (GAELIC), joined QuestionPoint in May 2004. Terry Lynne was the Unisa Library’s QP administrator from 2004 until the end of 2007. 

 Jenny Holmberg

  Lincoln Library, Springfield, Illinois 

Jenny Holmberg is a reference librarian at Lincoln Library, the public library of Springfield, Illinois.  The highlight of her position is providing reference service—in person, by telephone and now virtually through chat and email reference.  Other responsibilities include collection development and teaching.

Jenny grew up in Montana and graduated in elementary education from Montana State University, Bozeman.  Since then, she has received degrees in Adult & Continuing Education and in Library & Information Science from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. 

 Catherine Jackson

 Institution Ecole Nat Superier 

 Holly Kerwin

Holly's professional background (prior to her current position) has all been in academic libraries; she enjoys the customer service aspect of providing reference assistance to students of all ages, especially those returning to school after many years in the professional world.

Holly recently married (May 2007) and now lives in Northern Virginia with her husband, three dogs (Murphy is pictured here), and one large cat. In her free time she enjoys spending time with her parents, camping and vintage dirt track racing!

 Bernard van Maarseveen

 Ask Librarians Online, New York Public Library

 Bernard wrties: "Like many of us in the profession, I didn't start out with dreams of being a reference librarian. I started at The New York Public Library ten years ago, after short careers as a short order cook, a photo lab technician, a high school science teacher, and a security guard at a museum (among other things) - in short, the perfect educational background for telephone reference!" 

Bernard began at NYPL as a trainee, got his MLS from Queens College and has been part of NYPL's Telephone Reference team since 2001.  "I am happy to be working with the dedicated and always interesting reference librarians here at NYPL, and haven't regretted a single moment on the job." 

 Angela McMillian

  Library of Congress

Angela McMillian is a digital reference specialist with the Digital Reference Team at the Library of Congress. She has been working with digital reference services for seven years. Some of her daily tasks include answering QuestionPoint queries, developing Web Guides, and editing the Global Knowledge base.

 In addition, to working full-time she attends the Library and Information Science program at Catholic University of America. She is looking forward to obtaining her MLIS in December 2008. Her subject specialties interest are African American history and DC history. 

 Larry Olszewski

 Director

 OCLC Information Center

 Les Radis

 Bpi Bibliothèque d'information, Paris, France

 Joy Schwarz 

  Winnefox Library System, Oshkosh, Wisconsin

Joy earned a B.A. in history and library science from Marycrest College in Davenport, Iowa in 1979, and an M.A. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Library Studies in 1984.  After working 2 years at the reference desk of Oshkosh (Wisconsin) Public Library, she has worked as Web Librarian & Interlibrary Loan Librarian for the Winnefox Library System in Oshkosh since 1986.  She develops web sites for system libraries, assists in evaluating emerging technologies and Web 2.0 applications for their usefulness in meeting the needs of Winnefox libraries' patrons, assists libraries in setting up and customizing their blogs and web sites, and serves as local coordinator for the library system's QuestionPoint chat & email reference service.  

Joy also serves on the QuestionPoint Users Council and the OCLC Reference Services Advisory Committee.

 Harriet Shalat

  Head, Ask Librarians Online

 New York Public Library

 Beth Staats

  MINITEX Reference Services, Minnesota

Beth grew up in Mequon, WI, just north of Milwaukee, before moving to Minnesota to attend the University.  While working on her B.A. in History in the U of MN’s Wilson Library, she discovered a love of research and libraries and decided to move back to Wisconsin to get an M.A. in Library and Information Studies from UW Madison.  After receiving an M.A. in 1995 she worked part-time for the Wisconsin State Historical Society doing copy cataloging on WI State Docs.  She also spent two years working for Wisconsin InterLibrary Services (WILS) as their Borrowing Librarian before moving back to Minnesota.  She worked for MINITEX Document Delivery for six months before starting with MINITEX Reference Services in December of 1998. 

In her spare time Beth enjoys yoga, going for walks, cooking, working in the yard, and spending time with her son and husband. 

  Carla Steinberg Pfahl

  MINITEX Statewide Coordinator, Minnesota

Carla Steinberg Pfahl is reference librarian and trainer for MINITEX Library Information Network and coordinator of the statewide digital reference cooperative program, AskMN.org. Prior to earning her MLIS from Dominican University/College of St. Catherine in 2001, Carla worked for the University of Minnesota Libraries as Interim Head of the Music Library, as Reference Librarian for Wilson Instruction, Reference, and Information Services, as Coordinator of Chat Reference Services, and finally, as Coordinator of InfoPoint, Digital Reference Services. 

Carla’s interests include research in the field of digital reference service and work with various online tools for instruction and reference. She has recently published an article with colleagues Kate McCready and Van Houlson, about the research behaviors of students at the University of Minnesota.  The article appears in Internet Reference Services Quarterly, vol. 11, no. 4. 

 If you are interested in becoming a volunteer editor for the QuestionPoint

Global Knowledge Base, please contact Paula Rumbaugh at paula_rumbaugh@oclc.org.