A Life Fulfilled... Together
JEAN AND JOHN PIETY WITNESSED THE CHANGES THAT TECHNOLOGY HAS BROUGHT TO THE PROFESSION--CHANGES THEY HAVE EMBRACED AND PROMOTED WITHIN THE INDUSTRY
BY FORREST GLENN SPENCER
Jean Z. Piety Joined SLA: 1958 Current Status: Retired Last Job: Manager, Science and Technology Department Last Employer: Cleveland Public Library Experience: 51 years Education: MSLS, Western Reserve University; BA, Ohio University First Job: Clerk at Kodak during the summer breaks from college; then clerk in Freiberger Library, Western Reserve Univ. while going to Library School. First unofficial job was dusting the library shelves in elementary school First LIS Job: Librarian in Technology Division, Cleveland Public Library Your Biggest Challenge Today: Maintaining a daily structured schedule and keeping up with technology. Whatever happened to the simple 8-hour business day and the manual typewriter? |
John S. Piety Joined SLA: 1975 Current Status: Retired Last Job: Reference librarian Last Employer: John Carroll University Grasselli Library Experience: 40 years Education: MLS, University of Oklahoma; BA in Anthropology, First Job: After Army discharge, clerk at General Atomic First LIS Job: Acquisition Librarian, University of Wisconsin at Green Bay Your Biggest Challenge Today: Recovering from an aorta valve transplant |
Each of us enters this life undefined. Through experience and life's exposure, the definition comes into focus and we become the creature we were always meant to be. Some find that definition early and others a little later. And there are some who never know and live their lives empty and unfilled. That's not the case of two SLA members: Jean and John Piety of Cleveland, Ohio. They have been long-term members of the profession, and both are long-associated with SLA (Jean for 50 years, John for 23 years) and especially with their beloved Sci-Tech Division.
They have witnessed the changes that technology has brought to the profession--changes they have embraced and promoted within the industry. As a married couple they complement each other, and one cannot imagine one without other. In fact, they met for the first time in Chicago at the 1975 SLA annual conference, and they've been together ever since.
"We met at a luncheon meeting in a building overlooking Lake Michigan," recalls Jean Piety. "I remember the meeting was good--and everything that came out of that meeting was good."
"We were sitting at the same table," John Piety adds. "At the time, I was living in Overton, Maryland, with my parents. I had gone through a divorce and I was working for Computer Science Corporation. Jean was at the Cleveland Public Library." In the mid-70s, John got a new job at Pan American University (now University of Texas) as an acquisition librarian.
In order for them to be together, they decided to apply for jobs in each other's state--whoever got a job first, would move. It was John who moved. He got a job as library director at the John Carroll University, a private Jesuit institution in Greater Cleveland. They married on New Year's Day, 1979.
"At the university, everyone is Brother or Father somebody," John explains. "And my name is John Piety; they were always addressing me as Father Piety, and then I would turn and introduce my wife."
Jean continued her work at the Cleveland Public Library (CPL). In July 1980, she became manager of the science and technology department at the library, a position she held until January of this year. "We were able to buy a house in the spring of that year," Jean says. "On one of his trips up he agreed with one of the selections I had handy, and that turned out wonderful. We're in the same house today, and we would like to stay here as long as possible. It's a small house in Cleveland Heights, convenient to town and the theater and the arts museum."
Married and finally settled in the same city, the Pietys spent the next 25 years actively involved in their profession and in SLA. "I joined SLA first," Jean says. "I started working with the Cleveland Public Library in August 1957, and the staff associates in Cleveland were members. We had a strong chapter. They encouraged me to join, which was in 1958. There weren't too many divisions at that time, like Sci-Tech." Their involvement in the association, through the Cleveland Chapter and particularly the Sci-Tech Division, is well respected by their peers.
Retirement for Jean
This year is an important one in their lives. On 31 January 2008, Jean retired from CPL after more than 50 years--the only place she had been employed in her professional career. She started at CPL in August 1957 as a librarian earning $4,000 per year.
"Jean is the consummate librarian," says former CPL colleague Cheryl Hansen, who is also an SLA member. "She delighted in knowing and fostering the fabulous collections that she built here at CPL. Her depth and breadth of knowledge across a wide array of subject areas was simply awe inspiring."
More than one hundred friends and colleagues attended the retirement party, organized by Jean's CPL Science and Technology Department. The Pietys arrived in a limousine and they were showered with good wishes and gifts that evening.
"One of the interesting gifts was a quilt," Jean notes. "Each panel is the Library of Congress classification for science and tech subjects. The quilt isn't finished yet, and it's huge. They are having fun putting it together."
At the 2008 SLA annual conference in Seattle, the Pietys were this year's recipients of the SLA Engineering Division Librarians of the Year Award, which includes a $1,500 prize. They recognized the couple for their contribution to the division and to SLA throughout the decades. The Pietys could not attend the annual conference to accept the award because of John's hospitalization following an aorta valve transplant in February. In a letter to the Committee, Jean wrote: "The operation was successful, but his age limits a quick recovery and he is mainly bedridden. He is not a member of the Engineering Division, but has usually joined me for the business luncheon meeting because I have always enjoyed the Division and my associates."
Different Paths to the Profession
John started working in the library world long ago, before he became a professional librarian. He was living in San Diego, working as a clerk for General Atomic, a division of General Dynamics Corporation. In his words: "I remember my boss calling me in his office during my third year for a pay raise review and he told me that's the last pay raise he could give. I said, 'Huh? My work is not satisfactory?' He said, 'No, your work is satisfactory but I told you two years ago get a [MLS] degree and you can be paid more! He literally pushed me right out of the nest." With a letter of acceptance, he moved to Oklahoma in pursuit of a MLS.
Jean is a 1957 MSLS graduate from now defunct Western Reserve University. Upon graduation, she applied at Cleveland Public Library. "I had worked at the library at Ohio University and I've always been interested in libraries," she says. "My whole life I wanted to be a librarian. The opening was in the technology division. I got in and I started the same year as Sputnik went up. My entire professional career has been based on the space age." A few years later she joined the science and technology department and remained there for several years. She recalls one special project in the 1970s to develop the environmental resource center at the height of the environment movement: "CPL came in on the tail end of the National Science Foundation grant that Dialog had to develop online searching in public libraries--where you bill back the customers. We were to develop the paid reference service at that time. I had been asked by the director to organize it and to bill back the customer."
Describing the Facts for a Fee service, she adds: "People couldn't believe that a public library would be charging them. I did my search on a GE Terminet. Looking back, it's hard to imagine. I have seen the whole machine age develop. The technology has been fascinating and that's what's kept me going, longer than many of my library school associates. They seemed to peter out in the profession at the start of online searching. It's hard to believe today that we had to cradle the phone and the print-outs were mailed to you. In Cleveland there was a whole bunch of us--an online users group--and we were one of the first cities in the country to have an online search users group."
The paid service took a different route in the library and her career changed, too. "The department manager of science and technology retired at the end of 1979 and nobody applied for the job. So, the administrator of the main library asked me to take over, and I was in that position for 28 fascinating and challenging years as manager of a marvelous research collection downtown." That was July 1, 1980.
"Every year, there's always something new in the technology," John chimes in. "That kept us going."
"Not too long ago," Jean recalls, "I threw away a memo that I wrote in the mid-80s to twice justify a second PC for the department. When you look back, the CPL was founded in 1869 and the technology division was founded in 1912-13. Mr. Ward was the first head of the division and in his first annual report mentioned that they had actually received a telephone for the department. In the second annual report, they mentioned that they needed a staff member to answer the telephone."
Witnessing a Changing SLA
As with changes they witnessed in their profession, the Pietys saw the changes occurring with SLA. "It's fascinating watching SLA grow into a larger international organization," Jean remarks with pride.
"And all the divisions expanded," John notes. "There was nothing like the divisional set up they now have in place. I have enjoyed SLA." And he adds: "We've had such a strong Cleveland chapter and all the networking has been a big plus. Even more impressive to me, though, was the way she kept the [CPL] collection alive and helped us understand the foundations upon which today's documents were built."
Former colleague Cheryl Hansen says that Jean shared and fostered in her an excitement for items such as industrial standards. "Her knowledge and respect for the field, along with her wonderful stories about the development of standards and our collection, made me appreciate how important these documents are. Even though most people have no idea that they exist, industrial standards truly make our world a safer, more organized and functional world. Jean is one of the most well-rounded and truly interesting people I've ever met. She and John together never fail to provide wonderful company and sparkling conversation!"
Jean wrote articles in Science and Technology Libraries and Library Hi-Tech News and lectured extensively on her expertise. For SLA, John served as Bulletin Editor, President-Elect and President of the Cleveland Chapter; Membership Chair, Chair-Elect and Chair of the IT Division of SLA and on the Bylaws Committee for the Association. John retired five years ago in December 2003 from John Carroll University. Jean's chapter and divisional commitment includes positions as Networking Chair, President-Elect and President for the Cleveland Chapter. Plus, she's been Treasurer and Director for the Sci-Tech Division and a prominent figure in the Engineering Division.
They both agree that their success has been built upon interest in the profession and adaptability to change. "I also encourage getting the degree," Jean advises. "Degrees today are a mixture of not only information science, but are expanding into Masters in management and other areas. Be as diverse as you possibly can, because the whole field is changing so much." "And keep your curiosity," John adds.
Parting Words
Jean stresses that greatest concern to the profession is distribution of misinformation that is created by individuals who want to massage the data and make accessible information that they deem relevant.
"You're going to get good information," Jean says, "and you're going to get bad information. The thrust today is to teach how to find the right information, the good information. No library today can house the information necessary. One of our biggest problems as manager of the science and technology division was selecting materials. We cannot afford to buy everything, but the strength of the research part of the department is what's extremely valuable."
But the key, they both agree upon, is the importance of the role a librarian plays in our society, which is why through their involvement in SLA and through their jobs, mentoring of others also became a part of the Pietys' lives. For example, the SLA Sci-Tech Division is highly regarded for its mentoring program.
Today, John continues to recuperate from his heart operation and his wife keeps her hands involved in information by serving as an archivist for the Cleveland Technical Society Council. They'll continue to maintain their membership in SLA and other organizations, such as the Standards Engineering Society. They don't know what comes next in the lives exactly. Jean is hoping John will be well enough to renew their subscriptions to the orchestra and Cleveland Playhouse.
"In the meantime," she begins, "I'm going to spend time weeding my books at home; like, who needs a book on DOS now, right?" SLA
| FORREST GLENN SPENCER is President of SpencerConnects LLC, an information service and public relations company based in the Washington, D.C., area. He can be reached at fgspencer@gmail.com. |
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