Wixson and Lee named best of 2002

by Catherine Cox

Emily Newton Wixson and Yvonne Lee have been selected as the Librarians-of-the-Year 2002 for their dedicated work on behalf of the University of Wisconsin-Madison Libraries.

The Librarians' Assembly began giving these awards in 1989 to recognize librarians who are providing outstanding contributions to campus library services.

Two awards are handed out each year. One award is given to a General Library System (GLS) employee who has been on staff 10 years or less, and the other award is given to an employee with more than 10 years of service.

Wixson worked for the General Library System from 1976 to 1984. She received an undergraduate English degree from the University of Colorado-Boulder in 1972 and then received her MLS from the University of Wisconsin-Madison Library School in 1974. Wixson has pursued further studies in biology and education.

Colleagues who nominated Wixson for the award said, "her experience as a continually returning adult student is why she is so good with her outreach to returning adult students. She can really relate to the challenges they'll be facing, especially with doing their library research."

Wixson returned to UW-Madison Libraries in 1997 as the science outreach librarian and today divides her time between Steenbock and Chemistry libraries. She has received national recognition for her work with Beilstein and Gmelin user education, especially with the UW Libraries Beilstein Help Internet site, a Web site developed to assist users with Beilstein Crossfire databases.

Lee is the second most senior librarian within the General Library System.

In 35 years of service, she has been head of the Serials Control and Binding Unit in Acquisitions and Serials Department, head of the Central Technical Services Division, and head of the Serials Acquisitions Department. Her specialty is serials librarianship, and she is known for her wealth of knowledge of the UW-Madison serials collection.

Lee has also been active on several committees such as the Voyager Acquisitions Implementation Team.

Nominators described Lee as being "loved by her staff" as well as being "a source of strength" and a leader with "quiet diplomacy and effective management style."

Lee is planning on retiring in July 2002.