Library Staff Directory

Debra Sampson

Bio:

Debra has been the Director of the Academy of Art Library since July 2007. Before pursuing a career in librarianship she worked in the nonprofit sector for many years while living in Point Reyes Station California. She earned a B.A. from Sonoma State University in Literature and received her Masters in Library and Information Science from San Jose State University. Debra’s interests in the field of librarianship include collection development, reference services, and reading and writing about contemporary trends in librarianship. Debra serves as the Newsletter Editor for BayNet, a local library and information organization. In her spare time she enjoys traveling, cooking, knitting, hiking, and is studying Japanese. Debra is happy to help you with any research needs you may have, via email, phone, in person, or through her online office. Please email or phone her to set up an appointment.

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Heather Cummins

Bio:

Heather Cummins is the Visual Resources Librarian at the Academy of Art University Library. She manages the digitization project that contributes digital media to the digital image collection. Heather also serves as a reference librarian and contributes resources to the Art History research guide.

Heather has worked in the Academy of Art University Library and various archives since 2005. She developed the Lynn Hershman Leeson Archive, which was acquisitioned by Stanford University in 2005, and has worked since at the California State Automobile Association and Computer History Museum archives. She has also contributed archival finding aids to the Online Archive of California (OAC). Heather has a BA in Art History from UC Santa Cruz and a MLIS from San Jose State University. She is an active member of the Visual Resources Association (VRA) and the Art Libraries Society of North America (ARLIS).

Heather is interested in information issues related to visual literacy, digital preservation, and public access to technology.

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Holly Gatto

Bio:

Holly Gatto joined the library staff at the Academy of Art University Library in January 2009. As the Associate Director of Library Systems, Holly is responsible for developing and maintaining the Academy of Art University Library Website. She developed the organization and layout of the library website and she continues to add new resources and functionality to the website. Holly works to ensure that students and faculty have access to the library’s online resources and she also works as a reference librarian. Holly is interested in usability, information architecture, and intellectual freedom issues.

Prior to starting her library science degree, Holly worked as a software developer and consultant. Holly received her B.S. in Computer Science from Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland Ohio, and her Master of Library and Information Science (MLIS) from San Jose State University.

When she's not developing websites or learning about usability she can be found taking photographs, starting craft projects, and reading.

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Renee Lopez

Bio:

After many years in the animal care field, Renee decided to pursue her other career interest in library studies. She completed the two-year Library Information Technology program at CCSF in 1997. She started at the Academy that same year working in Circulation then moved to the Serials department. She is responsible for maintaining all aspects of the approximately 300-title collection which includes acquisitions, bindery, claims, repairs and displaying current magazines.

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Rosita Burke

Bio:

Rosita Burke has been with Academy of Art University Library since 2005. She runs the Course Reserve section (Teachers: tell Rose what you require your students to read or view). She also purchases books and films for the Library, and welcomes acquisition suggestions from students and instructors.

Rose has a degree in History, with a solid background in the humanities and art history. An eternal student, she probably has enough post-graduate credits for several more degrees (she has been known to exaggerate, but charmingly), and she finally settled on librarianship as her road to fulfillment. Hobbies? Reading, of course.

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Sloan Denton

Bio:

Sloan started at the Academy of Art University Library in the fall of 2009 and has served as Circulation Supervisor since spring 2011. He holds a B.A. in English Literature and received his Master's of Library and Information Science from San Jose State University in 2010. His previous library work experience includes positions in academic, public, and government libraries.

Sloan's favorite part about working at the Academy of Art University Library is the residual arts education he receives through working with the university's students and staff. More often than not, whenever he checks out a book or DVD to someone or helps them locate an item in the stacks, he gets to learn about something new, whether it is the Czechoslovak New Wave film movement or the work of some Dutch architect and architectural theorist. So never hesitate to bug him -- he's always happy to help (and learn something).

If you have any questions regarding the library's circulation policies, or need to discuss your library account, please contact Sloan at 415-618-3916 or sdenton@academyart.edu.

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Audrey Ferrie

Bio:

Audrey started at the Academy of Art University Library in the Fall of 2010. She received her BA in English, with an emphasis on Creative Writing in 2005 from Marylhurst University, and her Master's in Library and Information Science from the University of Washington in June of 2010. Audrey can be found leading tours and workshops, helping students with research at the Reference desk, and holding down the circulation desk. Prior to working at the Academy of Art University Library, Audrey worked in public, academic, corporate and law libraries. Information behavior and literacy, digital archiving, and rural libraries are where Audrey's nerdy passions lay.

Outside of the library world, Audrey spends her time exploring the Bay area, taking clandestine photos of herself with vintage cars and trucks, baking pies and cakes, gardening, urban gleaning, and taking long walks in Mountain View cemetery.

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David Aponte

Bio:

David Aponte is presently employed as a Circulation Assistant for the Academy of Art University Library. He also works for the Oakland Public Library as a Library Assistant. Originally from the Bronx, N.Y., David received his Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from The School of Visual Arts where he specialized in Film. After graduating, he worked as a freelance Videographer for ten years.

David continues to work as a Videographer/Consultant for non-profit organizations. The videos he produces are used to help procure grant funding for programs.

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Jack Doran

Bio:

Jack joined the AAU library staff in February, 2011. After receiving a BA in English from UC Santa Barbara, he went right into the pertinent field of animal rescue, where he learned how to administer medication, express bladders, manage a shelter and even drive a tractor. He now divides most of his time between slinging books and pursuing a Masters in Library and Information Science at San Jose State with a specialization in archival studies.

Jack’s outside interests include: Detective and Noir fiction, “playing” guitar but ultimately just eliciting complaints from his neighbors, cycling, bird watching, 50’s & 60’s Country LP’s, animal welfare, baseball, oral and folk history and various bits of regional and/or historical minutiae.

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Mardi Veiluva

Bio:

Mardi joined the Academy of Art University Library in September, 2011. She worked at several San Francisco law firms as a trusts and estates paralegal before returning to school to receive her BA in Human Development from Cal State East Bay in 2008 and then to pursue a Masters in Library Science from San Jose State. Mardi graduates with her MLIS in December 2011. Mardi's professional interests include information literacy, instruction, and using technology to create tutorials and how to lessons. When not doing school or work Mardi spends time hiking in the Open Space with her Boston Terriers and doing community projects like heading a task force to get the Walnut Creek Skate Park built. Mardi lives in Walnut Creek with her husband, 3 dogs and has two college age sons.

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Annemarie D.

Bio:

Annemarie joined the Academy of Art University Library in September 2011, after four years cataloging and databasing media at the venerable San Francisco location of Amoeba Music. She received her B.A. in Comparative Literature from San Francisco State University in 2009, as well as a minor in Japanese from that institution’s highly challenging and in-demand program, where she studied contemporary Japanese literature in the original language. She also served as an editor of the University’s journal of comparative literature, Portals.

Annemarie’s interest in literature and language lead her to the world of libraries from an early age, and she founded a youth library organization (P.L.O.T.S.: Public Library Organization Through Students) in her hometown while in grade school. Annemarie’s interests include collection building, publishing, and determining how libraries best adapt in the face of the continuing dematerialization of data.

Outside of the library, Annemarie enjoys baking, adventuring, riding on city buses for a hobby, her cat, and her record collection.

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Hope Johnson

Bio:

Hope joined the Academy of Art University Library staff in December 2008 as the Assistant Director and Reference & Instruction Librarian. She can often be found providing research assistance at the reference desk, leading tours of the Library and teaching students how to use the Library's website and online resources. Hope just recently relocated to the Bay Area from Florida, where she worked in art libraries at the University of Florida and was a graphic designer for UF’s Department of Entomology. She received a Bachelor of Design from the University of Florida's School of Architecture and a Master of Library & Information Science from Florida State University, which explains her interest in the design of complex information spaces.

Outside of library-land, Hope is a ceramic artist, photographer and website designer. She also enjoys gardening and playing frisbee with her cute dog, Lucy.

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Abby Dansiger

Bio:

Abby Dansiger is the Visual Resources Librarian at the Academy of Art University Library, where she manages the digitization, cataloging, and development of the library’s digital image collection available through LUNA. Abby also serves as a reference librarian and the Photography subject specialist. If you have any questions about LUNA or would like assistance searching for images, please contact Abby at 415.618.3761 or adansiger@academyart.edu.

Abby has been a part of the library staff since 2007. Her prior experience includes performing image indexing for the Bettmann Archive at Corbis, and cataloging an artists’ ephemera collection for the SFMOMA Research Library. Abby holds a BFA in Photography from the School of Visual Arts and received her MLIS from San Jose State University. Her professional interests include information organization and access, visual literacy, digital asset management, and preservation. In her free time, she enjoys beading, knitting, and looking for the hidden stairways of San Francisco.

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Lillian Hetherington

Bio:

Lillian’s background is in art, as a fine artist and as an art history major, with a specialization in the art of Africa, the Americas and Oceania, in which she was a museum docent for 20 years. She has worked at the Academy for many years in different capacities. As a slide librarian, she has seen a change in media with the digitization of images. She now catalogs these images for the Luna data base, and will be helping to digitize the slide collection. Though there is a lot of stock photography on the internet, the picture file is still in use and she works to keep it maintained and correctly organized. Graduate students have the privilege of perusing theses of past students, so they may gain insight into what makes a successful project and how to present it. The circulation of these and the fashion files are part of her responsibility.

Lillian enjoys working with instructors and students in the employ of the school and those that use the media she works with. Her after hours are filled with projects involving art, music, and family.

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Heather Stenson

Bio:

Heather Stenson joined the staff at the Academy of Art University Library in February 2007, and has served as the Technical Services Manager since February 2011. She received her undergraduate degree in Anthropology from Colorado State University in 2004 and her master’s degree in library science from San Jose State University in 2010. Her professional interests include user experience, metadata, and indexing, and her personal interests include baking, avoiding washing dishes, knitting and crocheting, and, of course, reading. Feel free to contact Heather if you have any questions about the Library’s catalog or the state of its collections; she can be reached at (415) 618-3858 or hstenson@academyart.edu.

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Ian Frederick-Rothwell

Bio:

Ian Frederick-Rothwell is finishing his Master's of Library and Information Science (MLIS) degree at San Jose State University while working as a cataloging assistant in the Academy of Art University Library's Technical Services department. He earned his BFA at Alfred University in printmaking and video art.

Ian is a cataloging and audiovisual media geek. He aspires to someday catalog and preserve sound and moving image recordings for audiovisual archives. In his scarce free time, he snaps digital and medium-format B/W photos, prints woodcuts and collagraphs, practices unorthodox bookbinding, hikes and bikes, cooks minimalist (but not raw) cookery, infuses neutral spirits with herbs/nuts/fruit, and distributes bad puns. When possible, he does two or more of these at a time.

His band Show Me State is self-recording its second album, which he would tell you is titled "Meh, Sirrah!"

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Emily Vigor

Bio:

Emily joined the Academy of Art University Library in spring of 2011, and has worked as the Cataloging Assistant since August 2011. She received her BA in Social Sciences from Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo in 2006 and her Master’s in Art History from Richmond University in London in 2008, where she wrote her thesis on the American Land Art movement. Emily is currently working toward another Master’s in Library and Information Science from San Jose State University. Her previous library work includes positions in the National Gallery Picture Library in London as a digital image consultant and at Weinstein Gallery in San Francisco as an archivist of artist estates.

Outside the Academy of Art University Library, Emily spends her time knitting, taking medium format photos, visiting art galleries, plotting trips to remote desert locations to see remote art instillations, and putting aside a good amount of money to buy books at the Friends of the Library Book Sale at Fort Mason each fall!

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Anders Lyon

Bio:

Anders started working at the library in June 2010. He moved to the Bay Area from Bloomington, Indiana where he attended and worked for Indiana University. Throughout his undergraduate years at IU, he was employed as a student worker in the stacks of the Herman B. Wells Library. In 2007 he received a B.A. in Art History, focusing on Northern Renaissance painting. Upon graduating, he was hired on as a library staff member in the stacks department where he worked until moving west. Outside of the Academy of Art University, Anders volunteers at the San Francisco Center for the Book and practices amateur bookbinding and design. In his free time he enjoys biking around the city, looking for junk, and making mixtapes. Recently, his interest in the styles of the Northern Renaissance were reinvigorated, so he's been revisiting the old research haunts.

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Daniel Kaufman

Bio:

Daniel joined the AAU Library in September, 2011. After receiving his B.A. in New Media/Sound Design from Bowling Green State University, he worked in various recording studios in Seattle, WA. After that he acquired his M.L.I.S. from The University of North Carolina, Greensboro.

Daniel’s outside interests include: playing bass in a band, fixing bikes, drawing, alternative screen-printing techniques, chemical processing printing, lifting weights, reading, volunteering at Creative Growth in Oakland, and Norwegian black metal.

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Ally Hack

Bio:

Ally started working at the library in September 2011. She holds a Masters in English/Writing from UC Davis, and is now working towards her MLIS at San Jose State University. She also works as a library assistant for the Oakland Public Library.

Ally enjoys reading literary fiction and graphic novels. In her life beyond books, she likes beach walks, coffee shops, and trips to the farmers market.

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