University Times

The Chinese American Librarians Association (CALA) has named Rush G. Miller, director of Pitt’s University Library System (ULS) and Hillman University Librarian, the recipient of the 2011 CALA Distinguished Service Award, the association’s highest recognition.

Miller, a longtime advocate of programs that reach out to Chinese libraries and librarians, is being recognized for his leadership and achievements in library and information science and his contributions to the advancement of Chinese-American librarianship and cooperation between American and Chinese libraries.

Miller developed the ULS-China librarians’ training and exchange program, which allows Chinese librarians to spend six-12 months at Pitt to visit and learn from libraries in the United States; ULS librarians do the same in China. To date, the program has benefited 41 Chinese and 14 Pitt librarians.

Miller also implemented the East Asian Gateway Service (EAGS), a transcontinental resource-sharing service that provides document delivery between key academic libraries in East Asia and scholars in the West. EAGS has expanded to 17 academic libraries in mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan and one research library in Korea. Western users are from 40 U.S. states and from other nations worldwide.

Following the 2008 earthquake in China, Miller spearheaded a book drive for materials in English for students in grades 7-12. He and a delegation personally took 1,700 volumes to schools and universities impacted by the disaster.

In 2004, Miller helped organize a three-week summer institute at Hillman Library called East Asian Librarianship: China Focus, which included training for 28 Chinese studies librarians from across the United States.

The Staff Association Council this month honored Mary Beth Mengel, who has served as SAC secretary for the past nine years.

Mengel is retiring June 30 after 18 years of employment at the University.

At SAC’s June 8 meeting, outgoing SAC President Gwen Watkins presented Mengel with a Tiffany lamp and a certificate of appreciation acknowledging her service.

Xiang-Qun (Sean) Xie, a faculty member in pharmaceutical sciences at the School of Pharmacy, has been invited to serve as a member of the biophysics of neural systems study section of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Center for Scientific Review, for the term beginning July 1 and ending June 30, 2015. Members are selected on the basis of their demonstrated competence and achievement in their scientific discipline as evidenced by the quality of research accomplishments, publications in scientific journals and other scientific activities, achievements and honors.

Xie is a core co-director of the NIH-funded Pittsburgh Center for Chemical Methodologies and Library Development. He is a member and co-PI of the Pittsburgh Molecular Library Screening Center, which previously was funded by the NIH Roadmap Initiative.

He holds joint faculty positions in the School of Arts and Sciences Department of Computational and Systems Biology and the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute.

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The People of the Times column features recent news on faculty and staff, including awards and other honors, accomplishments and administrative appointments.

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