The NJIT Library Will Not Be the Same as Maria and Yacie are Retiring

Maria and Yacie with Bruce looking on

 Last Friday we held a retirement luncheon for Maria and Yacie at Luigi's Italian Restaurant in Newark.  Maria retired at the end of May, but we had to postpone her party due to the tragic death of our university librarian.  Yacie will leave at the end of August.

They were both the best circulation clerks and will be sorely missed by the library staff and our patrons.  I wish them all the happiness in retirement.

METRO is Moving to the Far West Side

I found out last week that after 26 years at the same location METRO will be moving to a larger space at 11^th Avenue and 45^th Street.  I found out the details while I was at a meeting of SIG conveners but the official announcement may be found at http://metro.org/articles/a-new-home-for-the-metropolitan-new-york-library-council/ .

METRO wants to augment their services to the library community and needs a larger space to do so.  Only one event at a time can be accommodated at the East1th Street location, but the new space can accommodate 2 or 3 simultaneous events.  The owner of the East11^th Street building wants to renovate, thus if METRO stayed noise would likely disrupt the lectures.

I have enjoyed the professional relationship that I have with the METRO staff since I started the Science and Medical Librarians SIG in 2000.  I will miss coming to the Union Square area and browsing in Best Buy or the Strand bookstore.  It was also nice being convenient to the subway station there.  It will be a long walk from the Times Square station or I could take the M42 bus.

I certainly wish METRO well in their future endeavors on the far west side.