[Ed. note: This article was written by Lars Meyer.]
David Vidor retired from Emory University on June 1. I first met David about 13 years ago when I interviewed at Emory. On that day, I remember David sharing thoughtful insights about the Emory Libraries and asking some really good questions about preservation and libraries. Since then, I’ve had the pleasure of working with David. I’ve always appreciated his honesty and candor. Many times I’ve relied on David for a reality check.
David began working in the Woodruff Library in August 1981 as one of two business librarians. As a subject specialist, he provided general, humanities, and social sciences reference services. After about a dozen years as a Business Librarian, he become the Electronic Instruction Librarian, charged with developing staff and user training and documentation for pre-internet electronic databases available through the Reference Department. With the advent of the Internet, David served as the Computer Services Librarian, coordinating the development and implementation of public access CD, gopher, and WWW information services. He created and maintained the library’s WWW home page.
As head of Reference Information, Consulting and Instruction from 1995-2001, David was responsible for the delivery of reference, consulting, and instructional services. During that period, he managed the transition from the separate service points of General Reference, Science Reference, and Government Documents into one unified service location. The management of the Electronic Data Center was added to his responsibilities.
From 2001 until 2008 David was the User Services Division Leader with responsibility for user programs in Reference and Instruction, the Electronic Data Center, Information Commons, Chemistry Library, Math/Science Reading Room, and the Music Library.
David’s current position is the Electronic Resources Licensing Librarian. He negotiates advantageous financial terms, legal rights, and conditions of use for scholarly electronic resources – journals, bibliographic databases, datasets, etc. – for the Woodruff Library and the Health Sciences Center Library. He works most closely with Susan Kellett Gue, Holli Eremine, Jessie Copeland and other members of the Electronic Continuing Resources Team in the Content Division, the Collection Management electronic purchasing group, and Bonnie Bryan in the Health Sciences Library.
David recalls that when he started working in the Reference Department, there were a total of six reference librarians who all had desks in one room and shared one telephone and a typewriter. There were no other staff in reference and the reference desk was staffed by these six people seven days a week for a total of 86 hours each week.
Please join me in wishing David the best of luck in his future adventures and endeavors. David, be well!
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