Anne R. Kenney, university librarian emerita, a charismatic visionary who led Cornell University Library through a decade of transformation and growth, died at Hospicare in Ithaca on Feb. 5. She was 72.
From 2007 until her retirement in 2017, Kenney shaped a world-class university library that empowered Cornell’s community of scholars, expanded partnerships with institutions around the world and raised the bar on standards for digitization, preservation and open access to research materials.
“Anne was a dear colleague to so many of us. She transformed the Cornell library with wit, intelligence, patience and a superb sense of humor,” said Provost Michael Kotlikoff. “Her passion was the library and the people who treasured it, and her untimely passing is a loss for us all.”
[Clip]
Much in demand for her expertise, Kenney led popular continuing education programs on digital imaging and digital preservation. She also gave talks on every continent except Antarctica, and served as a consultant for research and national libraries in countries including China, Myanmar and Cuba.
“Anne Kenney was a treasured colleague, mentor, and friend to many of us in the research library community,” said Association of Research Libraries (ARL) President K. Matthew Dames, the Edward H. Arnold University Librarian at the University of Notre Dame. “She broke important ground in preservation and digitization, and led with tremendous vision, humor, and equilibrium. Her absence will be felt for years to come.”
Kenney was highly respected within ARL. She served as interim executive director (January–March 2018) and as a member of the Board of Directors (2010–2013). She also served on several ARL committees and working groups: Member Engagement and Outreach Committee (chair 2015–2016), Strategic Thinking and Design Transition Team (2014–2016), Membership Committee (2013–2015), Special Collections Working Group (chair 2010–2012, member 2007–2009), Transforming Research Libraries Committee (2010–2012), and Nominating Committee (2008).
The family will hold a private celebration of Kenney’s life this spring. In honoring Kenney’s memory, please consider a donation to the Anne Kenney Endowment Fund that supports library collections at Cornell University, c/o Jennifer Sawyer, 130 East Seneca Street, 4th floor, Ithaca, New York 14850. For more information about the fund, please contact Jennifer Sawyer at (607) 227-7759.
Gary Price (gprice@gmail.com) is a librarian, writer, consultant, and frequent conference speaker based in the Washington D.C. metro area.
He earned his MLIS degree from Wayne State University in Detroit.
Price has won several awards including the SLA Innovations in Technology Award and Alumnus of the Year from the Wayne St. University Library and Information Science Program. From 2006-2009 he was Director of Online Information Services at Ask.com. Gary is also the co-founder of infoDJ an innovation research consultancy supporting corporate product and business model teams with just-in-time fact and insight finding.
From Penn State: Penn State University Libraries has expanded its robust scholarly research potential of one of America’s foremost 20th-century writers through the acquisition of the Toby and Betty Bruce ...
From Politico: Far from the trenches in states like Florida and Texas, organizations in deep-blue New York are stepping into the fray by directly lending 25,000 books to non-residents since spring, ...
From the Associated Press: A roundup of some of the most popular but completely untrue stories and visuals of the week. None of these are legit, even though they were ...
From a ULC Release: The Urban Libraries Council’s new member tool — the Business Value Calculator — provides public libraries with a concrete way to measure and evaluate its contributions ...
From an Ithaka S+R Post by Kurtis Tanaka: As Ithaka S+R’s research has well documented, people in prison have profound information needs and suffer from an equally profound lack of resources ...
DeepMind’s New Chatbot Uses Google Searches Plus Humans to Give Better Answers (via MIT Technology Review) Inside the 15,000-Strong Record Collection at Hawaii’s State Archives (via Vinyl Factory) South Carolina: ...
Direct to the Full Text of the Resolution Introduced by Congressman Raskin 7 pages; PDF. From PEN America: With free expression and the freedom to read being undermined in America’s ...
From a Joint News Release: Paolo Manghi, CTO of OpenAIRE, is co-leading an international team led by University of North Texas that has been awarded a $1.2 million grant from the Mellon Foundation ...
From ALA (via YouTube): R.L. Stine has been writing scary stories for more than 30 years. His books have sold more than 400 million copies and have been translated into ...
From a DPLA Announcement Digital Public Library of America (DPLA) is pleased to announce the release of January 6th on the Record: The Investigation into the Attack on the U.S. Capitol, ...
How Libraries Became Refuges for People With Mental Illness (via Slate) New Online: Special Issue of IFLA Journal to Mark the 20th Anniversary of the IFLA Statement on Libraries and ...
“Restricted Access: An American History of Book Banning” event was held at the New York Public Library on September 21, 2022. A video recording is available here and also embedded ...
