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Tribute to Arlene Taylor
Excerpt taken from the April 22, 2002 Faculty Newsletter

The aforementioned members of SIS as well as several colleagues from Taylor’s professional life honor Arlene Taylor, Professor, who will retire Dec. 2003. The article reflects the strength of Taylor’s career and her contribution not only to the School of Information Sciences here at the University of Pittsburgh, but also to the profession through research, implementation, and through her two textbooks, Wynar’s Introduction to Cataloging and Classification (8th and 9th editions) and The Organization of Information. 

Dean of the School of Information Science, Toni Carbo, PhD, MS, writes that “Arlene has created a great legacy for the profession that will stand the test of time. We are fortunate to have had the privilege of working with her, and we will continue in the tradition of scholarly excellence that she has exemplified during her outstanding career.” (74) 

Susan Hayes, PhD, a cataloguing librarian at the Elmer Holmes Bobst Library speaks for all the contributors when she mentions Taylor’s clarity coupled with her ability to make difficult concepts seem less intimidating. Hayes, a student of Taylor’s during Taylor’s teaching years at Columbia University, states that Taylor’s texts, Wynar’s Introduction to Cataloging and Classification (8th and 9th editions) and The Organizations of Information," continue to set the standard for comprehensiveness.” She writes, too, that “students…unable to grasp complex concepts such as…container architecture” understand these concepts after reading Taylor’s “lucid” text. (76)

 PhD candidate and Teaching Fellow Daniel M. Joudrey, MLIS: “The first time I heard about Arlene Taylor was in the summer of 1998 when I was looking for the best school in which to study classification and cataloging. Unsure of how to find this information I called the ALA Office of Accreditation. The person I spoke to stated that she could not recommend one school over another but that I might look at the school rankings, web sites, and library science journals. I stated that I had already done so and that I was interested in a few schools, one of which was the University of Pittsburgh. The person on the other end said, “Good! Pitt has Arlene Taylor. You should check her out.” That is exactly what I did. I called a friend, Dan Cherubin, who had graduated from the library school at Colombia. When I mentioned Arlene’s name, he started talking a blue streak. I have never heard Dan speak so highly of anyone except Leslie Gore. I knew I must be on the right track” (77).

Jerry D. Saye, PhD, MLS, Professor at the School for Information Science at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill never worked on the same faculty with Taylor, nor was he a student. He describes himself as “faculty member at another school in same career stage.”
While describing the “virtual hysteria” brought on by the publication of the AACR2, Saye describes Taylor as a “welcome note of sanity at a time when the ‘Chicken Littles’ of the field seemed to have the ears of so many”(79). 

Richard Smiraglia, PhD, MLS, MDiv; Professor at the Palmer School of Library and Information Science on Long Island, NY writes, “It was Arlene who taught me to teach.” when they worked together at Columbia University (81).

Sherry L. Vellucci, DLS, CAL, MS is Associate Professor Department of Library and Information Science, St. Johns University, New York City. Vellucci studied under Taylor at Columbia University. Vellucci writes,  “[H]er reputation in the field of bibliographic control was one of the primary reasons I selected Columbia’s program”(82). 

Hong Xu, PhD, MLIS, Med, Assistant Professor, met Taylor while a new faculty member at the University. Xu writes, “It has been my great fortune working with Arlene. Because of our common research interests in the area, we cooperatively wrote a research grant proposal on identifying resource types of Web accessible information in August 2000 and finally won the OCLC/ALISE Library and Information Science Research Award. During the process of writing the proposal, Arlene would listen to every one of my suggestions carefully and with respect. Although she is a senior researcher and I was just a junior explorer, we worked closely on every detailed part. I have learned from her not only the spirit of meticulous scholarship, but also the way to lead junior colleagues by the hand” (85).
 
 
 

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Publication of the Department of Library & Information Science
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Last updated April 26, 2002