Good-bye, so long and farewell

Barring some significant unforeseen circumstance this will be my final blog post written for Indiana University and the Craig Preservation Lab. After nearly 33 years of working for IU I have decided to retire effective January 31, 2015. I began my IU career in February of 1982 when I was hired as Director of the Library at the Indiana University East campus in Richmond, IN. I remained there until 2004 when I transferred to the Bloomington campus, first as the Electronic Resources Administrator and eventually as Head of the E. Lingle Craig Preservation Lab.

There is a “Chinese” curse that goes “May you live in interesting times.” However I believe that I have been blessed, rather than cursed, to have lived in interesting times during my three decade plus career at Indiana University. While I was interviewing for the position as Director of the Library at IU East I was asked how long I thought I would stay. I replied that I thought three or four years would be about right and if the campus had not evolved as much as it did during my time there that would have been correct. However, as I have said to others on several occasions, at a small campus it is not that there are significantly fewer things that have to be done, but there are significantly fewer individuals to do those things. This shortage of staff created “opportunities” to be involved in arenas that many of my library colleagues do not get to experience. For that I am grateful.

At one time, the IU School of Library and Information Science offered courses at the regional campuses and I taught a few of those. One was the basic management course. A point I made to the students was that everything in library management was pretty easy and straight-forward except personnel. Fortunately I have been surrounded by an excellent staff during my time at IU and want to thank all of them for the outstanding work they have done and for carrying me along for the ride. These include:

Betty Carnes, my first secretary and key administrative assistant when I began working at IUEast and who provided an anchor for my first 15 or so years.

Lora Baldwin, the second librarian I hired at IUE

Sue McFadden, the third librarian I hired at IUE

Ava Zettle, my second administrative assistant

Lori Duggan, hired as my assistant in the UERA office and who now is the Head of Electronic Resources at IUB

The entire full-time staff of the E. Lingle Craig Preservation: Elise Calvi, Doug Sanders, Herb McBride, Anitta Salkola-White, Lara Tokarski, Arini Esarey plus several others who are no longer at Indiana University.

All of the student and hourly staff I have had over the past 33 years.

And finally, Mechael Charbonneau for the friendship and support she has provided since my first day at IU Bloomington.

One of my favorite quotes is “A job does not make you old…Regrets make you old.” Well, I have had few regrets since I arrived at IU East in 1982 and I don’t feel old – so apparently this quote is true in my case. I’m looking forward to the next phase of my life.

Gordon Lynn Hufford, soon to be ex-Head of the E. Lingle Craig Preservation Lab