5 Aug 2017

An amazing science librarian's retirement party

By Paula Johanson

Among all the science news this summer of various kinds across Canada, here's a piece of good news about a person who spent a career working in a science field.

After 40 years as an engineering librarian, Randy Reichardt has retired. His colleagues and friends gathered on June 28 at the University of Alberta to celebrate his retirement -- dozens in person and dozens more watching an online live feed of his retirement party. Among the praise that was lavished on him were the facts that Randy was the first engineering librarian to include social media referencing and has been awarded the title engineering librarian of the year for North America. He's earned many honours over the years in the field of library science! Here's a link to the Engineering Guides available through the University of Alberta Libraries, where Randy worked until this July.
 
This is Randy's current profile picture on Facebook, which he's captioned: "Tuning up for the weekend gigs."

Another engineering librarian praised "the knowledge, humour and generosity of simply the best amongst us." One friend sent thanks "to the librarian who taught me everything I know about Leptinotarsa decemlineata, Click beetles, space elevators, and MathSciNet on CD-ROM." And a colleague who met Randy several times at conferences or library advisory board meetings noted: "Your innovative outreach methods and your Scitech Library Question blog that you started many years ago motivated me to explore, evaluate, and experiment with new engineering electronic resources and innovative instructional approaches." That blog, Scitech Library Question, was written by Randy from 2003 to 2009.

If you're thinking about a career in library science, or as an engineering librarian, there are hard-working people like Randy in this field, making a difference with every library user they help or colleague they advise.

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