Meet the Harper Librarians

Larry Barr

Hi! I’m Larry Barr, an adjunct Reference Librarian at Harper College. I also tutor in the Harper Writing Center and teach Humanities 101 classes on campus. I enjoy the variety of my different jobs. My wife and I share interests in reading, music and traveling. I play the piano and my wife likes gardening. I have an MLS from Kent State University and I have completed several M.A. level history courses at the University of Illinois at Chicago. I have a B.A. in History from Cleveland State University and I also attended Kenyon College in Ohio. Harper College is a vital part of the local community. In the future, I believe community colleges will become more popular, because they offer a good education at an affordable price.

Kathryn Dauksza-Dowd

My name is Kathryn Dauksza-Dowd (aka Kathy Dowd). I have been blessed to serve the Harper Library since September 2000, where my primary role has been in support of the Technical Services Department. In 2008, I was one of three Harper Library employees supported by RFL Dean Njambi Kamoche (and in my case Professor James Edstrom), to participate in a Network of Illinois Learning Resources in Community College sponsored grant titled: Librarians Serving Community-based Higher Education: Preparing the Next Generation of Community College Librarian. The grant funding was awarded to NILRC by the Institute for Museum and Library Services – Laura Bush 21st Century Librarian Program. The grant program prepared twenty plus students at the Graduate School of Library and Information Science at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, to meet the specialized needs at community college libraries. It remains an exciting program.

While in graduate school I learned a great deal about high school students preparing for college by participating in a practicum at the Elk Grove High School Library. After graduating from UIUC I completed a six month grant based internship at the John C. Murphy Library, College of Lake County. It was and remains an incredible journey.

After many years of planning, the Northeast Center Reading Room was opened in July 2010. The Reading Room is the first Harper satellite library and offers full library services. I am one of two librarians paving the way. It is exciting and a great deal of fun serving the special needs of the NEC community.

When not working at Harper, I am usually playing helicopter mom to my fabulous young adult children. The picture you see here is Harry Elefante’. Harry was prepared by a group of PTO parents in preparation for an author visit by Roland Smith. Harry is made from PVC pipe, chicken wire and duct tape. Harry is now a permanent fixture at the school library.

I will also mention that I remain a returning adult student. Some people call this path lifelong learning. I have two different degrees from two different community colleges and have attended four or five others on my educational journey. I finally got my BA in my early thirties (ah, the wrinkle free days.) Obtaining a master’s degree was a complete surprise and wound up being my 50th birthday present to myself. Life is certainly good!

Jim Edstrom

As the Coordinator of Technical Services, I oversee acquisitions (the ordering and purchase of materials for Library collections), cataloging (the bibliographic organization and processing of materials received), and serials (the check-in and organization of Library periodicals).

I also spend a significant amount of time at the Reference Desk and in conducting Library instruction sessions for Harper classes. Ultimately, my role is guided by an understanding that every function within the Library is interrelated, whether it be related to public or technical services.

I currently serve on the Faculty Senate as secretary, Learning Communities, Oversight Committee and the New Faculty Course Subcommittee. I teach History 111 (United States to 1877) and History 219 (Illinois History). I started working at Harper College in 1996.

Martin Firestein

Hi! My name is Martin Firestein and I am the archivist at the Harper College Library. My job is to build the archive collection of historical documents of the Harper College campus. I have been at Harper for over 6 years and I really enjoy helping patrons in the library find what they need from the archive collection. I received my MLS from Dominican University. In my spare time I enjoy reading and watching TV and I like to tell jokes (really bad ones!)

Kim Fournier

I have an M.S. and C.A.S. in Library Science from the University of IL Urbana-Champaign. I have a B.A. in English literature and Spanish language, also from the U of I, and an A.A. from Harper College. I am the Coordinator of Collections and Archives at the Harper College Library. I work to strengthen the collection and evaluate its adequacy and potential to provide curricular support. I consider myself extremely student focused. Assisting students with research at the reference desk and in library instruction classes truly keeps my level of enthusiasm high for working at Harper College. I currently represent RFL on the Faculty Senate and serve on the College’s Teaching and Learning Committee. I have been a librarian at Harper College since the year 2000, and enjoy my work very much!

Tom Goetz

Hi, I’m Tom Goetz. In my 15 years at Harper I have worked in several different positions in the Library, currently I am coordinator of Reference Services. In this role I build and maintain the Reference collection, as well as help to assure quality service at the Reference Desk. Somewhere along the way I also picked up the job of administering the Library’s automation system as well. In this role I deal with the day-to-day operations and long term issues involve with the automation system. Like all Librarians at Harper College I work at the Reference Desk, teach Library Instruction sessions and help to build the collection. Currently I serve on the HR committee and the Curriculum committee.

I am happy to serve as liaison to the Business and Social Science Division. I welcome your suggestions and questions. As we strive to build a better collection I especially welcome suggestions for new materials and help in the withdrawal of older dated materials.

I have been working at Harper since 1994 and full-time since 1996. I have a B.A. in Religion and History from Augustana College and a M.L.S. from Rosary college, now Dominican University. Thanks!

Amy Kammerman

My experience as a librarian has been extremely varied including positions as an original cataloger at the World Bank in Washington, D.C.–a mere two blocks from the White House, a reference, instruction and aerospace engineering librarian at the University of Central Florida in Orlando, Florida and reference and assistant archives librarian at rotary International headquarters in Evanston. In graduate school I divided my time between classes in archives and preservation, working in the library computer lab and creating a newsletter of library school student life. I have done each of the following things exactly one time: skiing, sledding and ice skating. I enjoy water sports and can roll a kayak. I have visited five continents. If I’m not at work you will probably find me in an airport traveling to see friends or jetting off to some exotic locale. As I have discovered, every exotic outpost probably has a library.

Christine Kuffel

Hi!  I don’t like talking about myself, so it’s taken me a full year to write my bio.  I have my M.L.S. from Dominican University as well as a certificate in School Library Media.  I have a B.A. in General Studies from Roosevelt University (I couldn’t decide on just one thing to study).  My college experience started at Triton College, where I received an Associate’s in Arts degree.  I enjoyed attending a community college and I definitely enjoy working at one.  If I’m not reading, I’m baking.  I won 2nd place in the DuPage County Fair for my sugar cookies.  I can cross that off my bucket list!

 

Kathleen Ladell

Hi! I’m Kathy Ladell, a new face at Harper College’s Library.  I work as an adjunct librarian at the reference desks on weekends.  I have a BA in Spanish from the University of Wisconsin La Crosse in addition to my MLS/MA in Latin American Studies from Indiana University.  Like Lauren, I also work at the Northlake Public Library District where I am in charge of the Spanish materials collection.  Before coming to Chicagoland, I worked at Monroe County Public Library and the Herman B.Wells Library. I enjoy ALL the groovy cultural events that Chicago offers, especially the arts.  Besides the arts, I love to camp, travel, play Scrabble, knit, pet my kitties, laugh out loud, and read myself to sleep.  Harper College is full of people who are willing and eager to help students.  I am grateful to be part of it!

Mingyan Li

Hello, I’m Mingyan Li, the new adjunct cataloger at Harper College Library. I am responsible for original and complex cataloging of various materials. In addition to my cataloging duty, I occasionally work at the reference desk and will be teaching the bibliographic instruction class from time to time.

I received my MS of Computer Information System from Bradley University in 2003 and my MLS from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2004. Prior to my current position, I was the cataloging/reference librarian in Advocate Health Sciences Library Network and the cataloging librarian in Glenside Public Library District. I am excited to be part of Harper College Community and serve the students, faculty, administration, and community with my expertise.

Nicholas Lundvick

Hi, I’m Nick, an adjunct librarian at the Harper College Library.  I spend my time here working at the reference desk and conducting bibliographic instruction courses.  I have an MLS from Dominican University and a B.S. from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.  In my free time, I enjoy reading, watching movies, and camping with my family.

William Pankey

I enjoy the outdoors, going into Chicago, bird watching, and riding my Kawasaki Vulcan 900 motorcycle.  While indoors I like reading, writing, teaching, taking a nap, watching a DVD with my wife.

I enjoy a good conversation over an equally good cup of coffee and also art, music, history, philosophy, world religions, and the humanities. I particularly like Hinduism and Buddhism with a particular interest in India. I also like watching boxing, the sun rise and set, sitting by a fire on the beach while watching the stars. I love to travel. The more exotic the better–I’ve been to India three times and Israel once. And most of all sending time with my wife, my two grown daughters and my wonderful granddaughter.

Music is a large part of my life. I like The Beatles, James Taylor, Eric Clapton, Cat Stevens, George Harrison, Jackson Browne, Jonathon Edwards, Joni Mitchell, Annie Lennox, Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, Led Zeppelin, Police, Sting, Phil Collins, Genesis, October Project, Renaissance, Baroque, and some Classical music and East Indian music. Ravi Shankar is the best!

Finally, I enjoy being the faculty adviser to the Buddhist Interest Group on campus.

Pat Tetzlaff

I have an MLIS from Dominican University and a B.S. in Business from DePaul University. In addition to my Harper Library duties, I am also an Adult Services Librarian at Crystal Lake Public Library, where I have worked for 11 years.

Here at Harper, I teach bibliographic instruction classes and occasionally work at the Reference desk. I also assist with work on various areas of the library’s collection, including serials and media.

Holly Thomas

Transplanted from Alaska’s frozen north (ten years ago, I’m not straight off the tundra), I (Holly Thomas) am delighted to be part of the Harper team. I am over here at the Northeast Center Reading Room in Prospect Heights, an access point for the Harper community to library resources. I am looking forward to see you all over here! We have computers, a quiet study area, books for leisure reading, and can connect you to all of Harper College Library’s online databases and other digital resources. If you have little ones, they will have fun here; there are lots of books for kids and a nifty area to hang out in, board games too. Soon, you’ll be able to check books out over here from both campuses… that will be fabulous! You might have seen me on stage in the Chicago area (most likely not, but don’t feel bad)… I’ve been walking the boards since I got here. I obtained my MLIS from Dominican in 2008 and also spend my time at DePaul University’s Reference desk. Among other distractions, I play cello, and dream of travel, the great outdoors (harkening to my icy up-bringing) and Avant-garde European Theatre. Oh yeah, and those book things, I like those. I guess I like things in parenthesis too (har har). Don’t forget to visit!!!

Dwain Thomas

Dwain Thomas has worked as an adjunct reference librarian at Harper since 1985. Retired from Lake Park High School in Roselle as a librarian and English teacher, he is also employed as a concierge at the Hyatt Regency Chicago. His Masters in Library information Science from Florida State University was preceded by undergraduate work at Southern Illinois University-Carbondale and followed by a CAS degree from Evanston’s National-Louis University.

Michele Ukleja

I am pleased to serve Harper College students, faculty, administration, and community as the Coordinator of User Services. My primary function in this role is making the resources and services in the library readily available to all patrons. I am passionate about seeking new and innovative ways to deliver information to library patrons and consequently have created the Harper College Library blog , the Library Facebook account (become a fan!) and the Library Flickr account. I also coordinate the Library Research guides. All are available via the library website.

While I am relatively new to the position of User Services Librarian, I am not new to the Harper College community. I previously served as the Audiovisual Cataloger in the Technical Services Department of the Library. I am a former Harper College student and received my A.A. here in 1989. I hold a BGS in Liberal Arts from Roosevelt University and in 2006 I earned my MSLIS from Dominican University. I currently chair the Library Marketing Committee and serve as co-chair on the Instructional Technology Committee.

I am excited at the opportunity to serve you and look forward to working with each and every one of you!