Trish Iaccarino Retires

July 10, 2018

Trish Iaccarino, who was hired as an Information Processing Consultant in the Computer & Media Center of College Library in 2002, has announced her retirement as of August 1, 2018. Her last day in the library was July 2. Prior to working for the GLS, Trish worked for the Department of Public Instruction in the Division for Libraries, Technology, and Community Learning. Previously employed in various student services roles, Trish has a combined 32 years of service to the State of Wisconsin.

Trish recalls that when she started working at the CMC in College Library, half of the machines in the lab ran the Windows operating system, while the rest were Apple Macs. There was a strict division between the two sets of users. In those days, she spent most of her time making repairs, re-imaging machines, managing servers, and assisting at the service desk. Of course, it was a little less busy then – in 2002 there was no poster printing and only four laptops were available for check-out. Today the library circulates more than 200 laptops and printed more than 4,000 posters!

Trish also has an M.A. in Library & Information Studies from UW-Madison and over the years she has gradually contributed more and more to library public service, while continuing to support the CMC. Trish started working shifts at the Info Desk in 2003 and assumed selection responsibilities for titles for the computer collection and titles in religion/philosophy. According to Trish, “I wanted to use my library degree and I loved working at the reference desk because I enjoyed helping the public and finding information.” In 2011 she took on an even larger role, adding library instruction and even more collection development to her repertoire. Eventually she was selecting introductory titles in subjects ranging from history to social sciences to political science and law, as well as computer manuals. Trish notes, “I loved doing collection development. It was one of the favorite parts of my job, reading book reviews and making selections that I knew would benefit students at UW-Madison.”

In recent years, Trish has helped manage the ever-increasing poster printing service, scheduling and coordinating use of the software training classroom in the computer lab, and other administrative work on behalf of the InfoLab partnership. All this, in addition to her commitment to academic staff on campus. Trish was very involved with the Academic Staff Assembly, serving as co-chair of the Retirement Issues committee for two years, as a rep for the assembly, and culminating in a three-year term on the Academic Staff Executive Committee (ASEC) from 2013-16. This service provided “real insights into campus activities, the chance to connect with other people from other departments, and the opportunity to have a positive impact on the work of academic staff.” Some of the issues addressed by ASEC during Trish’s tenure include performance evaluations, salary compression, and searches for administrative staff including Provost Sarah Mangelsdorf.

In her retirement, Trish will continue to focus on service to the community (she currently holds three positions on the board of the Madison Civics Club), while looking forward to such activities as yoga, genealogy, and traveling. She has visited numerous countries already – Cuba, China, South Africa, Japan, Singapore, Thailand, Turkey, Chile, Argentina, Ireland, England, France, and the ever-exotic Canada. She looks forward to adding a few more destinations to this list.

Everyone at College Library wishes Trish the best. Happy Retirement!