
Catherine "Cotsy" Jones
We are sad to announce that Catherine “Cotsy” Jones who worked for McIntyre Library as a library services assistant until her retirement in 2006, passed away in November. Cotsy, as she was known by her friends and colleagues, worked for UW-Eau Claire for 27 years, starting in 1978 in records and registration, then moving to the library in 1980. She loved working with student assistants and solving patron problems. Cotsy is remembered as a friendly colleague who always had a story and a joke to tell.
Roxanne Backowski, electronic resources librarian, co-authored a book chapter, “The Intersection of Library Assessment and Collection Diversity,” published in the open-access book “Charleston Voices: Perspectives from the 2019 Conference.”
Cecelia Cole, academic librarian at UW-Eau Claire Barron County Library, and her husband, Aaron, welcomed their daughter Lillian Irene Cole on February 3rd, 2021. Congratulations Cecelia and Aaron!

Lillian Irene Cole
Kate Hinnant, associate professor, had her poem, “Human Sacrifice,” published in Asheville Poetry Review, Vol. 26-27, issue 29.
Hinnant and Jill Markgraf, professor and library director, had a chapter titled “On Not Reinventing the Wheel: Borrowing from the Writing Center Peer Consultant Model” published in the book “Training Research Consultants: A Guide for Academic Libraries,” edited by Jennifer Torreano and Mary O’Kelly, The Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL), 2021.
Greg Kocken, head of Special Collections and Archives, and his wife, Sarah, welcomed their son, Ansel Lewis Kocken, on October 12th, 2020. Congratulations Greg and Sarah!

Ansel Lewis Kocken
Kocken, Lark Keating-Hadlock, assistant archivist, and the Special Collections and Archives team were credited by Andrew Johnson as part of the reason he won the 2021 National History Day Teacher of the Year for Wisconsin Middle Schools. Congratulations to everyone in Special Collections and Archives!
Liliana LaValle, digital learning librarian, and Roxanne Backowski, electronic resources librarian, presented “Stop Sharing TMI: Applying Plain Language Principles to Database Descriptions” at the 2021 Electronic Resources & Libraries Conference. The 16th annual conference was hosted entirely online this year.
Jill Markgraf, professor and library director, and Dan Hillis, library systems and makerspace coordinator, had their paper “The Stone Soup Approach to Creating a Library Makerspace” published in College & Undergraduate Libraries.
Current Student Worker News
Audrey Carlson, lead student assistant, is a volunteer with the Reading Partners Program. This partnership pairs UW-Eau Claire undergraduates with Eau Claire Area School District students to help those who may be struggling to develop confidence with their reading skills. This program was on hiatus in 2020 but is now operating virtually this semester. Many of the books Audrey uses for her volunteer time come from the library’s picture book collection!
Carlson also began virtually teaching at Meadowview Elementary as the first education cohort to be placed ‘in’ a classroom in nearly a year. Congrats to Audrey!
Sarah Trapp, cataloging student assistant, co-authored a research article with two other Blugold students and Dr. Douglas Matthews, Psychology. The article was recently published in December, and is available through McIntyre Library on the ScienceDirect platform: “Acute ethanol administration produces larger spatial and nonspatial memory impairments in 29–33-month-old rats compared to adult and 18–24 month old rats” https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pbb.2020.173074
Sarah will be graduating from UW-Eau Claire this spring, and just accepted an offer for the Behavioral Neuroscience PhD program at Binghamton University in New York. Congratulations, Sarah!
Former Student Worker News
Emma Mabie, former Special Collections and Archives student assistant, graduated in December 2020 and was recently accepted to the iSchool at UW-Madison where she will pursue her Master’s in Library and Information Studies beginning this fall. Congratulations, Emma!