Maureen Pastine

1 Whos’s Who in World-Wide Publishing for Roger Waldeck from Maureen Pastine

1) What notable events or people inspired you to pursue a career in this industry? Why?

I began my career as a high school teacher of juniors and seniors in English, Journalism, and

Creative Writing. The person who inspired me the most was my one-room country school

teacher, Edna Mae Riedel. She was my teacher for eight years until I graduated from Ford

School, near Ogallah, Kansas, on the Saline River, bordering my parents’ home and all of our

neighbors’ homes, many with children in the same one-room country school.

I asked her to teach me how to read on the first day of school. She taught me most of the

alphabet that week and in the second week of school I could read. She was a fantastic teacher,

an inspiration, and a role model. The first books I read were for elementary students and were

about cats, dogs, and horses, all subjects that as a farm girl I was very interested in, and we had

some on our farm/ranch. Edna Mae soon had me reading novels as she read to the entire group

of students chapters from Mark Twain’s Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer early each morning

and throughout my eight years in school. I was hooked and from then on checked out reading

materials before returning home at the end of the day, as we all seemed to be.

Edna Mae also allowed me to purchase books for the school library. Soon I began checking out

books from a nearby town Library in WaKeeney, Kansas. My mother and father frequently went

to estate sales and purchased large boxes of books. These too became part of the school

library. Neighbors did the same. Our library grew and grew.

I never lost my love for reading and soon developed a zest for writing essays as well to fulfill

requirements of my English classes over the years. My reading graduated from fiction, to non-

fiction, particularly history and scientific subjects such as geology, and my father’s Farm Journal.

My mother, too, was an inspiration as she, too, had been a one room school teacher and had

taught my older brother (two years older than me) to read before he started school. My mother

was fascinated with the flying career of Amelia Erhart and my sisters and I have continued to

follow all of the news stories on finding her final fatal flight and where that might be. My

mother, like Edna Mae was very involved in the community in which she lived, family history and

stories, and quilting, embroidery, crocheting, and sewing of clothes for her children and helping

my father with farm/ranch chores, as he also worked as a “roughneck” on oil wells, prominent in

Trego County, Kansas, still today. He often helped us with math and algebra homework, along

with my older brother, even though he, my dad had only an eighth grade education he was a

well-educated man who always told us that education was extremely important to go on to

college when we graduated from high school. My mom did the same but she had a teaching

degree from Fort Hays State University.

Mom and Dad had five children (including a set of fraternal twins – one boy and one girl).

Because of the twins and our fascination with them, I often read books about twins or written


by a twin about being a twin, and scientific articles about them. Our twin brother and sister had

their own private language until they were in third grade and our teacher asked my mother if

she could stop them from using it to play tricks on classmates. Mom did and they quit using that

private language. My youngest brother (the male twin) and my youngest sister died young.

David died at age 55 of cancer. My sister died at age 55 of a hospital error. My dad had also

died young (he was 57 and died of cancer).

I received my undergraduate degree in English, with minors in journalism and the arts at Fort

Hays State University. I then began teaching English, Journalism, and Creative Writing in High

Schools. I loved doing this and once in a while hear from some of my students over the Internet,

on e-mail or through Facebook. I believe I was a successful teacher as my students always told

me that I was their ”best teacher” and those who have contacted me since tell me the same.

Most of my students also went on to college or university, and I often heard that all my students

were “A” students in their English classes at Fort Hays State, Kansas State, or the University of

Kansas. The principals of the high schools in which I taught (LaCrosse, KS; Kingman, KS, and

Palco, KS) were the ones who informed me of their grades too. I always asked my students to

enter writing contests and in every school I taught at least five to ten of my students won

scholarhips to a college or university of their choice because they had won many of these

contests.

My first high school position was as a student teacher to complete my teaching certification in

Kansas at LaCrosse, Kansas. My two supervising teachers one in freshman and sophomore

English and the second in Junior and Senior English were both called back home, i.e. out of state,

during the time I was to be supervised – i.e. after my first couple of weeks of watching them

teach.

The principal then asked me to go ahead and teach in their place until they could return. They

did not return until the last week of the semester, thus I completed almost a full semester of

teaching with only the Principal monitoring my performance once or so in the weeks that I

taught these classes. Both of these teachers and the principal told me I had done an incredible

job with little or no supervision for that semester. I was terrified the first couple of days but the

students were really supportive and kept telling me that I was doing great, just gave them too

much homework but that they really liked that I knew all of their names and faces the first day I

had to teach them.

After teaching high school for a number of years, I went to Emporia State University and

received a Masters Degree in Library and Information Science. I then went back to teaching at a

high school and was also the high school librarian. Near the end of the school year, I was sought

out and offered a position, after an interview, at Nebraska State University at Omaha. I began

as a reference librarian, helped with planning the construction of a new library, and was soon


promoted to the Head of the Reference Department , prior to the move into the new library.

This was my first academic library and the Reference Department grew from two librarians and

one staff member to ten librarians (two requested from the state legislature and approved), one

staff member, and a number of student assistants.

While at the University of Nebraska at Omaha, I was promoted from Librarian to Assistant

Professor (a faculty position) – the first time this had ever happened to a librarian since they had

the opportunity to apply for promotion as a faculty member – a number of years had passed

before my promotion before any librarian would even try to become a faculty member, as well

as a librarian. I know of no other librarian who was promoted into faculty ranks, except for one

while I worked there.

After eight years at the University of Nebraska at Omaha, the University of Illinois at Urbana

offered me a position as Director of the Undergraduate Library. I served in that position for

several years. This was my first academic library position in a large research land grant

university. I learned a great deal and loved the position. After my first year the Director of the

Main Library asked me to Head up the Reference Department in the main library and oversee

the reference and user education services in all the 39 departmental libraries and the

undergraduate library. I also loved this new position.

I did some fundraising at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and renovated the

Undergraduate Library and the Main Reference Room and provided new space for librarian

offices. I worked closely with OCLC (Online Library Computer Center - for large research

Libraries) and our Office of Interlibrary Loan. One day the Library Director, Hugh Atkinson,

another fantastic mentor, asked me what I was reading in his outer office. I told him about new

fax machines. He asked if I thought a fax machine would be useful in an academic library. I

responded that I was sure it would be. He asked for the magazine. A few days later he brought

a newly delivered fax machine to me in the Reference Department in the main library. We used

it for a couple of months. In a reference department meeting, I asked the librarians if they

thought it might be of more use in the Interlibrary Loan Office. There was a lengthy discussion

with everyone agreeing that was probably a better place to locate the fax machine.

We called the Head of Interlibrary Loan and asked if she would like to try this machine out. A

week later she returned to the reference department and told us that the fax machine had

really speeded up the work of Interlibrary Loan and thanked us for our willingness to give up our

machine.

I am still surprised that the Library Director at that University showed me that seeing librarians

really get interested in new technologies and new services in their professional positions should


be rewarded, not just by salary increases and promotions, but by following what they see or

hear in personal meetings. He was great at this and I have tried to follow his example.

I was also asked to teach several classes in the American Library Association accredited library

school at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, a fantastic opportunity which I also

used to select some of the best of the graduate students to work in the Undergraduate Library

and in the Reference Department of the main Library, or a Departmental Library when needed.

The University of Illinois was a great library to work in and personnel really worked well

together. I have often continued to contact colleagues that I worked with there who became

close friends, many of whom are now working in other libraries across the country.

I was promoted to Associate University Librarian (a faculty position) and tenured at the

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

I was surprised at one national American Library Association Conference to see ten library

directors who had once worked for me enter a party I was giving for friends. They approached

me and told me that they had gotten in touch with each other when they realized that each of

them had worked for me and loved working under my supervision. They had all been invited to

a party that I was hosting for librarian friends and showed up together to tell me that they

wanted me to see ten of those who I had formerly supervised, who had become library directors

themselves. I was really pleased.

That evening is still a wonderful memory – many of my former employees – more than ten now

are library directors and many others are heads of departmental libraries and/or heads of

departments in main libraries all over the country. Most have told me the same thing that the

ten women told me that night.

I was soon being asked to apply for a number of academic library positions in the California

State University System of 19 campuses. I was interviewed by two of my choosing and accepted

the one at San Jose State University. It had had a problematic history with library directors over

the years and the last one had died at a young age of a heart attack on the job. I accepted the

position. It was the most difficult of my professional career but I learned a great deal that

helped me in all future positions.

Some staff at San Jose State University tried to make it really difficult for me but the

administration and faculty were, for the most part, very supportive of all that I accomplished.

One of my first tasks was to rectify, with the state legislature, getting more funding to compete

the construction of a new library and renovate the old library, as the new library was not large

enough to hold all of the resources and staffing of the old library. With the help of the President


and the Provost of San Jose State University, I was successful, and was able to obtain funding

for the first online library catalog in any of the California State University Libraries. I wrote the

cataloging specifications for all of the CSU System Libraries and was able to interest Steve Jobs

to work with SJSU Libraries for designing and integrating a bibliographic system into the online

catalog that was then used, as well by all of the CSU Libraries.

This position helped me to gain great expertise in fundraising with state legislatures and in

designing library buildings and final construction and working with my library budget officer and

university budget officers when the Legislature cut almost half of our library positions and about

a third of our funding during Proposition 13 in the California State University budget cuts. We

were the largest University at that time and bore the greatest cuts. I was able to keep vacated

positions open and use them to get through this crisis. That was a difficult time but I was

successful at resolving many financial problems and fill the vacant positions at a much later date

with new librarians and staff that were more supportive than some of the older ones had been.

I also developed an exchange plan for librarians and staff members to be able to work at other

university libraries willing to participate across the country. One librarian transferred for a year

to a Northeastern small university and their periodicals librarian transferred to SJSU. A staff

member transferred for a short time to get an opportunity to travel to and work in an Australian

Library. The librarian exchange to the northeastern university library requested that we

consider hiring the head of the serials department in our Library for a position that was opening

up at SJSU Library. I asked the Search Committee for their opinion on this. They spoke to our

librarian who had worked under this individual in the exchange. He was very enthusiastic about

this and the Search Committee returned to me with a positive response. The candidate from

the exchange at the northeastern university was one of the candidates interviewed. He did so

well that he was appointed to the vacated position.

While at San Jose State University I was promoted from the Associate Librarian (faculty) position

that I held at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign to a full professor and tenured and

was nominated to Phi Beta Kappa and accepted that position along with other faculty members

on campus. That same year I was asked to accept a nomination into the International Library

Association. I accepted and am now a lifetime member of both these two organizations.

Soon I accepted a position at Washington State University, another land grant institution similar

in that aspect to the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Because of that I became very

involved with international relations in which the University was involved, as well as

coordinating many of our librarians working in Yemen, a developing country, a couple for

several years. They asked me to establish a United States land grant institution international

relations conference that could be shared with the other land grant institutions, first by having a


conference on our campus and then at other Land Grant Institutions. With their help we did this

and it was successful.

I learned a great deal about Land Grant Institutions and the countries in which they worked.

Because of this I was able to get the American Library Association’s College and Research

Libraries Division to establish an International Relations Committee. I chaired the Committee

for over five years and then convinced another land grant institution participating to take over

as Chair of the Committee.

While working as Director of Libraries at Washington State University, I approached the state

legislature with a program requesting funds for renovation of the old library and funds for a new

library to expand upon the old library. I was told by the Provost, the budget officer, and the

Development Officer of Washington State University that my request would never be

considered, as only the University of Washington Libraries ever received any monies from the

legislature. They did agree that I could try. I wrote a brief synopsis of why the money was

needed for the existing Library and for a new library attached to the existing library. I waited

for the person I had contacted to read my short request, prior to setting up an appointment

with several legislators and presenting the draft program I had completed. I received a call

within the week from the legislator that I had contacted. He immediately asked if I had a draft

program. I told him that I did. He told me that he had shared my “need synopsis” with several

other legislative personnel and that they would like to meet with me and our budget officer

within the next week. He asked if I could get approval of our President and Provost and invite

them to such a meeting with me and the University budget officer as soon as I could get

everyone together. I called him back the next day with two dates and with all the personnel he

had asked me if I could reach to attend such a meeting. He also wanted me to share my

preliminary program with all attending this meeting and to send him several copies. I sent

copies to everyone who would be attending the meeting (it was to be on the first date that I had

suggested).

I was nervous as I continued to be told by the budget officer that I had no chance of getting

money from the Washington State Legislature. The day of the meeting I was nervous but well

prepared and had spoken with all the higher level personnel that I had invited, at the request of

the legislator I had contacted, to make certain how desperately we needed more space and

some new space. The meeting went really well. The legislator said that the paperwork he and

the other legislators had received from me was better thought out than any they had ever

received. They told the group at the end of our meeting that these 3 legislators were sure that

the funding would be approved once the legislature met at the end of the month. I received a

call from the head of the legislature after the meeting telling me that the funding was approved

and that I would get a letter, copied to our budget officer and President and Provost by the end

of the next week. I did receive that letter. The President called a meeting with me, the Provost,


and the University’s Budget Officer to tell them the news and ask for their support for whatever

I needed to get faculty, library personnel, and students involved before final plans were drawn

up. I did as he asked. The library personnel were more surprised than anyone, other than the

University Budget Officer.

I had many meetings with campus and library personnel as plans grew and were tightened and

improved. The budget officer met many times with me and library personnel and we reviewed

the original program and improved upon it and split costs for all that had to be covered. Finally

we were allowed to interview and select an architectural firm with a close to final plan, even

though I knew that plans change as construction begins and new developments occur. I was

right but really excited.

Before the construction began Southern Methodist University contacted me and asked me to

interview as their Director of Libraries in Dallas, Texas. I was floored and told them that I was

planning new library construction, hiring an architectural firm, and did not want anything to fall

apart. They continued to call me and begged me to at least do an interview. I did. They offered

me the position that day. It was a great offer with promises to do many of the things that I felt

were needed at the SMU libraries, including getting into the automated library world, including

purchasing an online catalog and bibliographic system, barcoding all the library’s resources, and

purchasing some electronic information resources, and developing access to them across

campus in all the libraries, and with the Computer Center and the Library’s Media Services,

building digital commons in the libraries, the planned Hamon Arts Library (construction not yet

even begun and much left to plan for this) and within the Business Library, the Science Library,

and the Film Center. The work to be completed, including renovations and construction would

be enormous, and I felt that we should work with the surrounding community where no public

library existed to provide some services for them. They agreed but really wanted me to accept

the position that day.

I declined accepting the position without first thinking about the ramifications for Washington

State University and its several on- and off-campus libraries, elsewhere in the state, and in

Russia and Yemen. When I returned I first spoke to the assistant directors in the libraries, my

administrative assistant, and then the Provost (my direct supervisor) and the President. I sat as

a member of both the Provost’s Council and the President’s Council. I spoke to the University

Budget Officer. All asked me if I wanted the SMU position. I said that I had been at WSU for 8

years, felt that I had hired a number of really good personnel, and that the library had a number

of really capable personnel who would be able to complete much of what they had helped me

to do in the planning and proposed construction, but they would need, undoubtedly to begin to

search for someone from within or outside to fill my place – someone that they all agreed would

be able to do the renovation of the Wahlquist Library and add the new Clark Library. They told

me that they hated to see me go but that they understood that this was a real opportunity for

me, to work in a smaller private university with several libraries and a large archival library, and


with an institution known for its great ability at fundraising which I, too, was very interested.

The calls from SMU for the next couple of weeks increased from administrators, faculty and the

search committee. WSU asked me to give them the name of someone in the Library I felt could

handle the job until a new library director could be found if I took the SMU position. I finally

gave them the name of my administrative assistant who I knew could do the job but also knew

that a few others in the library would be resentful.

I finally told WSU administrators that I was going to call and accept the SMU Job and told them

of others in the library who I felt would be supportive of the Administrative Assistant as Director

of the Libraries, first on a temporary basis, and if they did not find someone they wanted in the

search process, maybe for an even longer term.

At Southern Methodist University I was asked immediately to complete plans for changes

needed in the Libraries, Media Services, and improved connections with the Computer Center.

In order to do this successfully I met with each Dean on campus, with all library personnel in

different ways, sometimes individually, sometimes by department, and sometimes within

smaller libraries, and always going over everything with my administrative council. Many faculty

made personal appointments with me to tell me what changes they wanted to see in the main

library, as well as in the departmental libraries. Some Departmental Chairs invited me to meet

with selected faculty so that I could hear from them about what changes they would like to see

in the libraries. I also met with the entire University Development Office who asked me to

prepare an initial plan for Library and Media Services fundraising. They were really supportive

of that plan and began on immediate searches to help fund projects that could be done prior to

renovations and construction. I was impressed with them and with individual donors interested

in the libraries, whom they sent to meet with me immediately. I began writing proposals that

they could work on with me or other library personnel before we finished a final plan for

renovations and construction.

The fundraising for the Hamon Arts Library was completed before I arrived and construction

well underway. However, they involved me in continued fundraising for the new Hamon Arts

Library, their interest in having the Library in charge of the Film Center collections, and they

introduced me to all major donors of the Hamon Arts Library, and many of them made

appointments to see me. They wanted a new Director of the Hamon Arts Library and wanted

me to establish a search committee and meet the candidates as soon as decisions were made

on them. There were fine arts, music faculty, a former fine arts/music librarian, and the Head

of the DeGolyer (archival) Library and a second archival library on the search committee. They

made their decisions quickly. The new Head of the Hamon Arts Building was hired after I arrived

on campus. She and I met frequently on the Hamon Arts Library and the Film Center and its

collections and a planned theater to be built next to the Hamon Arts Library. She was


supportive of all of my ideas and gave me a lot of hers to incorporate into my planning for the

Hamon Arts Library and the planned fine arts theatre.

When the search committee finished its deliberations they were approved by the Fine Arts

Director and by the Director of the Libraries. I was then asked to interview the two finalists at

the Music Library Association in Maryland, where I had been invited to speak on Music Library

Ethics, a year prior to my appointment at the annual conference of the Music Library Association

– a perfect place and timing for me to interview the two finalist candidates and then discuss my

preferences with the new Hamon Arts Library director. She fully agreed with my assessment, as

did the search committee. He was offered the appointment and he accepted.

My fundraising abilities grew tremendously at Southern Methodist University. Every proposed

plan that I submitted to Library personnel, University administrators, and then to the Provost’s

Council, was then forwarded to the University Budget Office and the University Development

Office. A few changes were often required but most were accepted as submitted, although the

amount of funding to be raised was sometimes lowered by the Development Office. Once they

told me that one of my prospective donors who I had worked with on several projects could not

be asked for more than $3,000 for planning for new automated and digital services across

campus libraries. One of the Development Officers attended a Power Point presentation that I

had completed on this project for the potential donor to see before I asked him for funding.

When I finished the presentation, he asked me how much would be needed to complete the

entire project, far over the minimal amount of money that the Development Officer told me

that I could ask for, even though I was the person who found and frequently met with this

library donor. He was not a general university donor. I knew though that the Development

Office wanted him to become a large donor for the University and knew that he was capable of

large gifts.

Not knowing how to respond I replied to his query by stating that the University was setting

priorities for raising funds and that I was told that I could not expect a large amount on this

project. He replied, Maureen, I don’t care what plans the University has for fundraising in areas

other than the libraries. I have worked with you on several projects. The only projects I want to

donate to are the libraries, and I know you well enough that I can tell you that you would not

put such a plan together and not know the potential costs. I explained that it would be close to

$35,000 the first year. He again replied, looking directly at the Development Officer at this

meeting, I am writing a check for $30,000 for this Library project that benefits the entire

campus. I expect the Development Office to help Maureen find other donors if the cost exceeds

that this year. I knew it would not as it would take at least two to three years to complete the

entire project. He handed the check to the Development Officer and said, “I do not want to

hear that the Libraries did not receive the total amount of this check.” We did the following


week. He continued to support the libraries the entire 8 years that I worked at SMU. Not all of

our donors were so generous. A few were even more generous.

Knowing how to balance your needs against other campus needs is not always easy, especially if

you work in the Development Office. I always tried to think of ways that the libraries could

support their own needs, along with other campus needs. That helped me in working with the

Development Office, the Budget Office, the President’s Office, the Provost’s Office, and the

many Deans, Department Chairs, and faculty and students that used the libraries and the

computer center. I knew that every campus need must be weighed against other campus needs

and how best to protect and involve other campus groups in our planning as they would often

be the users of our resources and services, thus sometimes we supported other campus needs

above library needs and were pleased when others did the same for the libraries.

I was very successful at fundraising and learned much from Development Officers, sitting on

high level University Councils and Committes, and ensuring that the libraries planning

documents were widely available to all segments of the campus, particularly our faculty and

student users, as well as primary university administrators and Deans. Our panning documents

were always available on the Libraries’ web site and print copies made available to anyone who

requested them.

I helped to complete oversight of the Hamon Arts Library and its final planning. I was most

pleased when I found that in its first use fine arts users had grown from 4% of its potential

library users to 45% of total potential users. This growth rate increased every year until the

library was always fully packed and additional space was needed. The Film Center began to

prepare for the overflow and we had to add seating there and additional automation for library

access.

My final academic research university library position was Director of Libraries at a highly

multicultural university, Temple University, in Philadelphia., Pennsylvania.

I completed renovation of some departmental libraries, the Main Library, a Temple University

Library in Rome that also served a few other university libraries who had students in Rome, Italy.

That renovation included connecting them to our Online Catalog and hiring a librarian to

complete their on-line bibliographic cataloging, and purchasing needed computer equipment

for users and staff. I visited that University, its library and library director a number of times to

ensure that students, faculty and staff were pleased with library resources and services.

I initiated a Library Donor Board for Library fundraising activities. They assisted in helping us

find funds for major projects, including some construction, renovation, and purchase of

resources and computer equipment. The bibliographic cataloging of the Dunbar Library (an


elementary school library) for which we purchased resources, was done by the Bibliographic

Department of the main library on campus. Students and staff of the Dunbar School were

allowed to access our online library catalog and check out resources from the main library on

campus if necessary. We taught the students how to use information technology and purchased

computer equipment for the Dunbar School Library, and our campus Computer Center installed

it for them, with hookups to our Main Library website. Our Main campus librarians and staff

assisted Computer Center staff in teaching Dunbar School students and staff to use the new

information technology and computer resources.

We also renovated an old campus construction site for a community library, off-site of the Main

campus, for use by anyone living nearby, no matter the age. All they had to do was come in and

sign up for a library card. They could use the library resources we purchased for this site and an

information technology center connecting them to the Internet and the main campus library to

request more resources if necessary. We met with community personnel who helped at this

community library once a week. Many of our librarians and Computer Center personnel would

also help at this site during different times each week, just as we did at Dunbar Library.

I worked closely with many university administrators, the budget officer, library personnel at

several locations, and even more importantly, University students and over 5,000 faculty

members, and their department heads. I conducted many research studies, with help from

different staff members. Some of those studies helped a new library director, after me, help to

complete a renovated building off-campus but nearby, in which many of our older books and

archives were moved into, along with information technology allowing users to access the main

library and digital records of many archival records housed in this center.

The President who hired me was very supportive as were the majority of faculty with whom I

worked. I was asked to take over the vacant University Press Director position, along with my

Director of Libraries position, the new Director of the University Press and I worked closely

together with a new budget officer at the Press, to clean up a $5,000,000 overage of

expenditures in budgeting of the University Press that had occurred with a former director. It

took us two years to do this but it was accomplished and we raised the funding brought in by

the University Press, primarily by making major changes in operations and services. At the end

of the two year period, another new University Press Director was hired. I received no salary for

this second position but the task was completed and the major problems with funding were

covered and resolved so that they would not recur in the future, and funding was increased

through fundraising efforts.

After eight years at Temple University, I retired and my husband and I headed for Camp Verde,

Arizona. Along the way I received a telephone call from the Chief of the Yavapai-Apache Nation,

four Tribal Council members, and an Executive Director. The Chief of the Nation told me that he


was looking for a Grants Writer and Grants Administrator and asked the other tribal members

on the phone to help him interview me. I asked how they knew about my fundraising activities

and how to contact me. He told me that he had run into my brother in Show Low, Arizona and

my brother had told him that I was good at fundraising, that I was on the road to live in Camp

Verde after retirement, and he gave them my cell phone number. They asked many questions

about where I had worked, what positions I had held, my primary responsibilities, and even

more questions about my fundraising activities, grant writing, and an estimate of total amount

of funds I had raised in my professional career. I told them the estimate was around $80 million

but that most had been from charities, foundations, and private donors, but that I had raised a

few million for libraries from government agencies. The Chief of the Yavapai Apache Nation told

me that the majority of their funding would have to come from federal and state grants.

As the questioning ended, he asked me if he could call me back in a few minutes after he had

consulted with all those who had questioned me over the telephone. I said that I had just

retired and was not sure that I wanted another job. All of those who were questioning me then

chimed in that they each were impressed with my responses to their questions, my 45 years of

experience in teaching and libraries, and more importantly, my experience and enthusiasm for

fundraising. The Chief then hung up. Within five minutes he returned the call he had promised

and offered me the job. The same people were still on the telephone, urging me to accept it. I

told them that the salary was low but I understood that they had no more to offer, that I would

be willing to take this job for two years. I actually worked in it for four years before I retired

again. Writing grants is extremely time consuming and checks by federal agents also took a

large amount of my time that I would have liked to spend with tribal members and finding out

their needs.

The needs were many and timelines to get grant requests in to state and federal governments

very short but most were for four years of funding. I wrote many grants and was never denied.

When the federal government visited the Nation and met with me, they told me that they had

few, if any, other Grant Writers and Grants Administrators as thorough and well written as

mine. They said that they had informed the Chief that I had told him, prior to their visit that I

would be retiring in the near future, and that they had encouraged him to keep me on to train

someone internally or to hire an outside person that I could train. The Chief did neither. I

retired and they did not hire anyone for five years. They recently hired a woman in the Nation

who had been their grant writer for two years but who brought in very little funding each year I

am told by tribal members who often see me, as my husband and I share a home each year with

my older brother and sister-in-law in Camp Verde. I know that they like this woman but they tell

me that I was a much better fundraiser and spent more time seeking them out to discover needs

and addressing them.


This position was one of the most interesting ones that I had ever held. I learned so much about

the history of American Indian populations and their trials and tribulations, as well as their love

of nature and connection with it and a spiritual world. Many tribal members sought me out to

tell me about the “Trail of Tears” and how it had affected the Yavapai and the Apache and how

they became one Nation. The time I spent with them was extremely helpful and I ded enjoy

writing grants to address their needs and expectations. I am so glad that I did not turn down

that offer of a job at the Yavapai-Apache Nation.

While I was working at universities I also taught a number of courses in American Library

Association accredited Library Schools throughout the country. I also wrote many books and

journal articles in the library and information technology fields, as well as in many subject areas.

Many of the books are still in publication and available through Amazon and similar places.

Publishers often tell me that a majority of those older publications are now being sold to

developing countries.

While working in universities with American Library Association accredited library schools, I

taught courses in ten different states. So my teaching, had continued to graduate schools, and I

had become a tenured full professor, with many book and journal article publications, edited

many books and journals, and some of what I published is still being sold via Amazon and via

other online booksellers.

2. Do you have any other professional endeavors that you wish to promote?

After retirement in Arizona, I headed a committee of community persons, via the City Council of

Camp Verde, and through a Committee of Librarians, to help plan a new library and begin

fundraising for a new library for Camp Verde, Arizona. The City Council established another

Committee, a 501C3 Library Fundraising organization. I served as a member of that

organization too. The my husband and I moved back to Kansas in 2009 for part of the year.

“We still live in Camp Verde, Arizona part of the year. I have continued to do consulting work

with many libraries and librarians on projects such as those I have worked on successfully over

the years.

My most recent retirement professional endeavor has been taking the Institute of Children’s

Literature coursework for writing children’s short stories, articles, and books. I am about half

way through a two year course and loving it. I am learning to strengthen my writing for younger

children, as I am too wordy for younger children, and too wordy, in general.

Most of my interest in writing for children stems from my extended family’s interest in having

annual reunions and other family social events and outings that captured a child’s interests in

community, socializing, and family history. Thus, my writing for children often involves family


stories that relate to my childhood, interactions with cousins, grandparents, aunts and uncles

and their families.

My extended family was large and very social. Over 600 family members first attended

the annual reunions but they are smaller now, 100 to 150 usually attend the reunions and

members are scattered over many states and drive long distances to attend the reunions.

Younger members do not know their cousins as well as we did when we were young, as we all

lived relatively close together. Many of our elders are long since gone but stories they told

about themselves and each other linger on with stories by those of us who still remember.

Reading, as well as writing, continue to be top priorities, in my life. Many of us stay in contact

via telephone contacts, e-mail, and Facebook, and letters. My living sister has completed much

of my own family history on my mother and my father’s side and compiled notebooks of folders

and family history and photos of many family members . She and I made trips to Denmark

where my great grandparents and their first son came from and to Germany where my other

great grandparents came from. We took many photos and met some aged family members

while visiting the towns in which they had lived prior to immigrating to the United States before

moving across the country and finally settling in Kansas. We found 10 family immigrants who

came to the United States and placed their names and date of entry into the United States on

the wall plaques at Ellis Island, and I was there for that opening ceremony at Ellis Island. Other

family can now access that information through the Internet.

Another thing that I did while working, during my vacations, was to lead educational tours in

other countries, to both developing and developed countries. I cannot remember all of the

places but they included Australia, Austria, Bahamas, Belgium, Brazil (including hiking in the

Amazon), Canada, China, Cook Islands, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Georgia,

Germany, Finland, Germany, Great Britain, Hong Kong, Hungary, Italy, Korea, Mexico,

Netherlands, New Zealand, Poland, Russia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Ukraine, United

Kingdom, Vatican City, and some places that I cannot remember now.

I have also traveled to most of the United States and other ountries to visit friends and family,

and often to speak at scholarly conferences in the United States and in many different countries.

While working in large research universities and libraries, I also instigated programs where staff

and librarians could do exchanges of positions with other staff and librarians across the United

State and in Australia. In this way they learned new ways of operations, services, and programs

and passed along their own recommendations to their counterparts in the exchanges. One staff

member involved in such an exchange encouraged our search committee to recommend that

they contact the head of a department in a library in which he had been involved in an exchange

as the thought he would be an excellent candidate for a vacant position in our library. The


search committee contacted the person and encouraged him to apply for the position. He was

very well qualified. The search committee was so impressed that they selected him as the

finalist. He was offered the job and moved across the country to fill the position from a small

town in the north east to a large city in California.

a) If yes, ask: When writing your biography should we focus on this endeavor instead of the

business you currently have listed?

Yes, I think that any working person will grow and develop by moving or taking on new

assignments and working with others that are successful in what they do. Most will learn and

grow from such experience, or looking for a new position where they will have new

opportunities and challenges to develop and gain new contacts and colleagues, as well as to

learn even more and be more productive and successful. I certainly did.

I applied all principles I learned in new positions to the next new position, along with offering

my past experience and position to someone new who would also bring fresh ideas and new

options for staff and librarians and library users. Sometimes I think it is damaging to an

organization for its staff to stay in their old positions for too long, stagnating the organization

and dragging it down. It is important to know the best time for you to move on and develop

your own strengths within another organization. It is difficult to lose good people but I do

believe that many people tend to stay in a position that they have held for a long time too long.

All of us should consider another position in their own organization or another position

elsewhere where one can learn and contribute more than she or he can in their present

position?

3. What motivates you to succeed professionally every day?

Keeping in contact with colleagues that I worked with in other places, as well as to develop new

contacts and colleagues in other positions and activities that help me to expand my horizons

and think and act in new ways. I also learn from reading widely, writing and publishing, and

learning from many others in many different fields outside my own. Anyone in a successful

position can help others as they have much to offer in the way of new ways of looking at a

problem, new methods to carry out old functions that may no longer be valid or successful.

Others who are successful in fields outside your own carry a ton of experience and success that

can be “mind opening and mind blowing” if you are not afraid to ask for their advice and help

with a problem that you are not certain how to resolve.

It is important to look for ways to solve old problems, to involve new people to work in the same

work that you do and to provide all an opportunity for promotion and a possible position

change, a way to learn new things that will help them grow and the organization to change as


necessary. All should have opportunities for change, for growth, for moving into a new position,

for promotion and ways to earn new things that will help them in their current position and in

improving their library, or other organization, and to change a problematic situation that is

damaging to the organization. Everyone can be successful and has something to offer if you

support opportunities that involve everyone and to give everyone the opportunity to grow and

develop.

All can contribute in new ways, and, if they wish, to move up, or laterally across the

organization, or to another organization, to a more fitting or challenging position. A department

head or director should make this part of their own job, i.e. to encourage advancement in new

ways for all employees. If employees are not motivated or challenged, problems will and do

occur within an organization, usually not for the betterment of the organization. Thus, it is best

to prepare in advance so that personnel enjoy their work and want to contribute in new ways

and to gain recognition for their work in the process.

Personal success is usually crucial for any person in an organization. It is important for

supervisors and heads of departments, as well as the most high level administrators, to

recognize this. Recognition for success at even the lowest levels in an organization is very

important and should be rewarded in important ways.

4. What has been your greatest challenge so far?

My greatest challenge was learning effective and successful fundraising capabilities as I had

never taken courses on this. I became very successful at this, bringing in over $80 million dollars

in my professional careers. That challenge was also one of the most rewarding because I

learned on my own, in a way, by asking for assistance of people outside of my professional field.

Those who were the most helpful to me were donors in business, technical firms, and scientific

fields, and some in charitable organizations and foundations, as well as government agencies

who awarded grants.

However, the most helpful people were the individual donors who had real interests in specific

projects in which I needed to raise funds. They could not be dissuaded for another project that

provided more recognition for them and their company. They wanted to be involved in their

own personal interest and if your project touched upon that interest, they could tell you exactly

how you could improve upon it, how they could help, and give you a list of many others who

would be more than willing to help and who could give you dozens of other names to contact

for funding gifts.

Most of the people who assisted me in learning about fundraising funds, and many who served

on my Donor Board of Directors were people from these groups who had helped me learn about

fundraising. They offered to help me establish my first Donor Board of Directors and select

others who would be excellent candidates to set on these Boards. I owe them so much. I


learned and grew with the assistance of people outside of my professional field, many in

business, technical fields, and scientific fields, and others from charitable organizations and

foundations, and some from government agencies.

A few others on these Boards were individual donors with a great interest in libraries and

archives. All of them became close friends as well because they wanted to see me become a

success. They often visited me at work, or invited me to functions where I could meet potential

donors and meet others who could help me find potential donors and board members. Often

when I ran into problematic areas that I had not encountered before I would call one of these

persons, and usually they would invite me to meet with them for lunch to discuss the problem

or issue and help me to find ways to resolve it. I learned a great deal this way.

One of my best donors was a 98 year old woman who had been a former one-room country

school teacher in Texas, and prior to that an Interlibrary Loan Librarian in Dallas, Texas who

drove a truck between libraries all over Dallas. She had also served on a Navy ship stationed

outside of the Florida Coastline. As a woman there was no restroom for women so they turned

one of the restrooms for men into one for her. Many of the sailors did not have an education

and asked her to teach them so she did and ended up with most of the naval crew in her

classroom.

I loved her stories but was even more impressed with how much money she had saved over her

lifetime and invested and it grew into a substantial amount, which she used to fund my

academic library as well as four other large research university libraries, mostly on the northeast

coast. We became great friends and I visited often on her farm where she was still shearing

sheep in her late 90s, on her 400 acre farm. She had cut the herd down from about 200 sheep

to about 5 when she reached 98. She really wanted to live to be 100 and she almost made it.

I went to see her about once a month and talked to her almost every weekend after I got the

Director of Libraries position at Southern Methodist University in Dallas. She called me after she

read about my appointment to that position and asked if we could become friends as she was

lonely and most of her friends and family had died. She also told me that she wanted to be a

library donor as well.

She was a library donor and became one of my best friends until her death. She was

hospitalized when a neighbor found her lying on the floor in her home and unable to get up.

That neighbor took her to the hospital. It was a Saturday. Late Saturday evening her doctor

called my home and told me that she had asked him to call me. She told him that I told her the

evening before when she called me that I would call her the next evening, and she did not want

me to try to call her and then worry about her when she wasn’t home to answer her phone. She

died much later that night. Her niece and I have become long distance friends since then. I still

miss her.


She was a person who told me that it was very important to become involved in your local

community when you retired so that you always had close friends and with whom you could

share your most common interests and where you could give back to the community that would

support you in many new ways. How true that is, and it is something that my parents always

told me too. “Never forget the community in which you live and provide support to others

when you can.” I try to live by that advice, as it is very true.

5. Do you have any advice that you would like to offer to other professionals in your field?

Be certain that you do not just focus on your own professional growth and development.

Look for ways that others in your workplace and professional organizations can provide the

same for those who work with and for us. They will be our supporters and our future. Do not

bypass them in decision making. They usually want to have a voice and want to be involved in

planning and completing major tasks, events, and planning. Let them. They have much to offer.

Help staff to learn and to grow, to be able to move in upward positions or laterally, or into new

positions elsewhere, if that is what they want. Help them to achieve their own goals and be

successful in whatever they choose in their position or positions throughout your time in

working with them and later if they move on. If you help them, they will, undoubtedly do the

same for you if you ask.

6. Are we missing anything? Is there anything else important to you that you would like to

discuss that we have not covered already?

Yes, librarianship is primarily a woman’s field but when I first began as an Academic Research

Library Director, I was the youngest of eleven women Library Directors in 112 Academic

Research University Library Directors. We had an organization and met annually. That

organization was called Academic Library Directors Engaged in Library Networking (WALDDEN).

I invited several other women library directors of small college and university libraries to join us.

Only a couple did. I was shocked when two of the larger research university librarians, upon

seeing these two women, who I had invited, as I felt they needed our support, tell them that

they were not welcome there and had not “paid their dues.” I objected, as did many of the

other library directors but the damage was done. The two women did not feel welcome and left

the next day. I know this kind of thing can and does still happen.

I want all women to know that most other women want to see more women achieve high level

positions in our field and in other fields and not to be shamed by such statements but “stick it

out” – you will have the support of most women in such positions. Today women library

directors are the majority in large research university library directorships. Go for it – i.e. apply

for those vacant positions. You are just as ready as most of the men who will apply, if not more

so.


I was once told by my direct supervisor, a Provost, when he heard that I was given a salary equal

to that of the highest paid Dean (the President set the salaries for me and the Deans each year),

that he he was shocked. I asked him why and he said, “Well you are the only female on the

Council and I assumed that your salary as the Director of Libraries would be far below that of the

Deans.” I asked him if he was disappointed with my performance. He said, “No, you do an

excellent job, including your work on the Council of Deans. I just assumed that a female and a

Library Director’s salary would be much less than the other Deans.” A few days later he

apologized to me after he sat in on a meeting with the President and the Attorney for the

University. I had been called in and was asked to help them resolve a major copyright issue that

they did not feel comfortable about responding to with a local art museum. I was familiar with

the art museum’s concern and had already done research that proved that the university held

the copyright for the art work (it was photographic work) done by a deceased artist who had

worked at one time for the art museum. However, he had given all of his photographic work to

the library, along with his copyright for the library to use as it saw fit. The art museum was not

familiar with that.

I gave the President a copy of the original letter from the artist/photographer. They sent a copy

to the museum and the art museum apologized and noted that they had not known that he had

turned over all of his photography and copyright to that photography to the libraries prior to his

death.

The President had called me in advance of the meeting and told me about the problem so I

came to the meeting prepared. The Provost was impressed and told me that he, too, was totally

unfamiliar with copyright laws and would not even have known where to find the information.

I had a similar problem at another university Library where I served as Director when a library

staff member was told by the Computer Center Director that the FBI wanted him to tell the

library staff member that the had to give a Department Head’s computer to the FBI because

they suspected his supervisor was involved in something illegal involving Muslims.

The Director of the Computer Center tried to get the staff member in the Library to unlock his

supervisor’s private office and take the computer to the office of the Computer Director. The

staff member did not have a key to his suprvisor’s office. He came to my office and said that

even if he had nown where to get a key he would have refused the request. He had left a note

for his supervisor to come to my office to meet him. When his supervisor returned to his office

he met us in my office. They both asked what to do. I told them that without a warrant for the

supervisor’s arrest the FBI could not do this, nor could the Computer Center Director.

I called the Computer Center Director and asked him what the FBI was accusing my staff

member of and he said, “The FBI thinks there is something about anthrax in his files.” The staff

supervisor heard me repeat this, and he said, “That is ridiculous. Ask the FBI agent to come over


and you come with me and I will show him all of my files. There is no such thing in my files.” So

I asked to speak to the FBI agent and asked him to come to the library and I and the staff

member he was accusing would take him to the staff member’s office so that he could check his

files. The FBI member said, “I will come to your office where I will question your staff member.

If I am satisfied with his answer, I will leave.” He came to my office and the staff member who

had been called and his supervisor stayed to meet the FBI member who showed us his badge.

He said that he had been told that the Staff Supervisor was “friends with Muslims.” The staff

member said, “We have many Muslims working and/or going to school on this campus. Many

work as student assistants in this library. Why do you think there would be something about

anthrax on my computer?” The FBI man said,“Well, now I understand that there probably is not

any such thing on your computer and your Library Director has supported your statement about

many Muslims working on this campus, taking courses in many classrooms, and that you have

many Muslim students working in the library. If I had known that I would never have

approached one of your staff members to unlock your office and bring me your computer to the

Computer Center.”

I excused the staff members and told them that need worry no longer. I then asked the FBI

member if he had any other reasons to do this behind my back as I was responsible for library

staff members, the Computer Center Director was not. He said, “The Library has a lot of

computers so I went to the Computer Center and asked the Computer Center Director what to

do and he suggested the we ask a lower level staff member to unlock the supervisor’s door and

take the computer out and bring it to the Computer Center, so that he, or one of his staff could

check it.” I asked, “Why did you select this person’s name?” He said, “Because I asked the

Computer Center Director who I thought would be responsible for the Library Computers and he

gave me this man’s name. I have been told to check this campus’ computers because of the

large Muslim population on the campus. However I am satisfied that you and your staff have

been very honest about the multiculturalism on this campus and I no longer have any concerns.”

When I asked him why he thought there was something about “anthrax” on a staff member’s

computer he just shook his head and said that was not his concern and not brought up by him. “

I still do not know if that was true but we never had another problem with the FBI after that in

that Library. The point of all this is that a Director’s staff must trust the Director, and the

Director must trust their staff members. My staff trusted me, particularly when situations such

as the above arose. They did not report to another Director. They would first come to me and

ask what to do in situations such as this. I always tried to support them. The Computer Center

Director should have called me. If the situation had been reversed, I would have called him

immediately, not asked one of his staff to unlock a staff member’s door and remove a computer

and bring it to me. I trusted my staff as much as they trusted me and tried to be as supportive

as possible. Good working relationships depend upon that. Integrity on both sides is very

important in working relationships between supervisors and workers.


I truly believe that a Library Director’s most important job is to keep all staff involved in decision

making, planning, and changes to occur in all of this. In addition all campus administrators,

every Dean, every faculty member, and all users must be aware of library plans in advance

through meetings, position papers, accessible on the Library’s Web site.

Library Directors and staff must be involved in every opportunity to participate in public

meetings so that all hear the same message. You must be willing to listen to concerns and adapt

to change in your plans as necessary to be certain that you gain the support you need to make

necessary changes and implement new and better organizations and resource changes that will

improve operations and library services. You need as much support as possible from all clientele

and administrators, staff, and others when implementing change that will affect everyone on

campus, and potential donors who should also have a voice.

Maureen Pastine

Business

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