After 44 years, Carol Rees is retiring from the University Libraries

by DENISE WOLFE

After 44 years, Carol Rees is retiring from the University Libraries. Carol has been a steady presence since the days when she worked in the Science and Engineering Library's audiovisual center in Capen Hall.

Carol began her career on Sept. 1, 1981, in the Science and Engineering Library under Patricia Ann Coty. Her journey through the libraries led her to the Oscar Silverman Undergraduate Library's circulation desk in 1984, where she became known for her helpful, courteous approach to assisting students, faculty, and other patrons.

In 2003, Carol was promoted to Library Clerk 2 in Access Services, where she supervised the day-to-day operations of the libraries' billing and borrowing office. She hired, trained and supervised student assistants while helping implement new procedures and technologies. But it was in her most recent role, following her 2014 promotion to Library Clerk 3, that Carol truly made her mark on the resource sharing team.

For more than a decade, Carol worked in interlibrary loan, tackling the most challenging and time-consuming requests. She specialized in processing requests that were missing critical citation information or came from obscure sources, often working with nothing more than a partial article title to track down materials from conference proceedings or hard-to-find journals. Week after week, she processed dozens, sometimes hundreds, of complex requests.

"I have always enjoyed working with Carol," said Paul Whiting, head of user, access and resources services. "I appreciate the level of effort and dedication she would bring to the work, and she always did all she could to be able to complete a citation. She genuinely cared about finding materials or completing citations so users would get the materials they needed."

Carol also played a crucial role during the library’s transition to Rapido, a new resource-sharing platform, by maintaining ILLiad, the library’s interlibrary loan processing system, so other staff could focus on implementation.

Carol retired on Jan. 29, 2026. Her dedication to connecting users with the resources they needed will be remembered by colleagues throughout the libraries.