Seth Crosby

Committee Member Tim Brooks presents Dr. Seth Crosby with the Community Spirit Award

Advancing accessibility and use of research tools in Biotechnology, Molecular Biology, and Genetics applications is one of the major aims of the library’s Bioinformatics support.

Dr. Seth Crosby from the Genome Sequencing Center was familiar with the remarkable software Spotfire, a networked gene expression analysis software package. He also knew that the library teaches classes offered through its Library Education Series. Seth came to the library to ask if we would be willing to consider providing training in the use of this “micro-array tool” that the University has a site license for, since there was no provisions for instruction in the use of this complicated program.

Becker Library recognized this as an important means to advance our mission to serve the research needs of the school and, taking cues from Dr. Crosby’s initial approach we embarked on first getting our expert Lili Wang trained so that she could offer training to others. The training process was not cheap, but the library considered it worthwhile enough to underwrite the cost. In a matter of weeks the library provided more than seven 6-hour training sessions, and the Spotfire class is now a part of our regular ongoing education series.

Diane Gentile

Committee Member Reka Kozak presents Diane Gentile with the Outstanding Performance Award

Coordinating the HIPAA Security compliance efforts for Central Administration and the Medical Library are not easy tasks. When MSCITS decided to write its security procedures as a guide and template for other departments to use, Diane Gentile authored most of the HIPAA compliance procedures. This involved gathering information from several technical experts in our area and from external resources, as well as engaging Central Administration departments to determine their risk from a HIPAA standpoint. This work ensured that our compliance procedures provided appropriate levels of protection for our customers.

In addition to HIPAA Compliance for Central Administration, the broad work covered compliance of PT, OT, Human Studies, Public Affairs, and others. All of this HIPAA work was done while Diane continued to set the high standard for the level of IT service provided by the Medical Library to its patrons.

Dan Hummel

Committee Member Nancy Bennett presents Dan Hummel with the Outstanding Performance Award

Over the years, and especially over the past year, Dan Hummel has gone well above and beyond by making himself available, day or night. His abundance of skill has helped in many areas – open houses, student and staff computing, audiovisuals, and many others.

Much of this work calls for after-hours and weekend fixing/problem solving. Dan puts in this extra time because he feels it is the right thing to do. Dan’s workload has included assisting with the new FLTC, where his audiovisual experience has helped to save thousands of dollars on the project. He is always willing to go the extra mile to help others, even though it may mean spending many late evenings catching up with his own work responsibilities.

Steve Kohler

Committee Member Joelene Swearingen presents Steve Kohler with the Community Spirit Award

Steve Kohler has been a great partner and advocate of the Becker Library for many years; he recognized that the expertise of our respective staffs was a perfect compliment to each other. Together we have been able to provide a unique and valuable service to the School of Medicine – affordable, creative, and state of the art, web site development services.

As the director of the Creative Services division of MPA (Medical Public Affairs), Steve and his team have partnered with our application development group to provide web site development services to departments and groups here at the school, in addition to joint effort to support the primary WUSM web site. Several dozen such web sites have been produced. Steve’s expertise, talent and vision have certainly helped Becker Library achieve its goal of providing excellent web development.

Mark Kremmel

Committee Member Kevin Sleeter presents Mark Kremmel with the Outstanding Performance Award

Providing technical guidance and support to the Networking Engineering group in all aspects of the Medical School network requires a high baseline performance. Mark Kremmel’s level is extremely high, and it shows in his knowledge about many aspects of network layers – from the physical layer to the application layer. This year’s expansion to the Rosedale Data Center included adding a new technology, optical networks. This technology provides the high-speed link which allows us to run our primary data center at a location several miles from the medical school as if it were local.

Mark investigated the technology and products, designed the network, ordered the equipment, configured and set the equipment up, tested and verified that all is working properly. In short, he got it done and the Data Center is up and running. Additionally, he steps up and makes sure things happen as expected and is a fun and enjoyable person to work with.

Mary Niedringhaus

Committee Member Donna Bliggenstorfer presents Mary Niedringhaus with the Outstanding Performance Award

In addition to her duties as our primary Lotus Notes support person, Mary Niedringhaus has taken on many other assignments over the past year – from developing online HIPAA training to serving on the Library Web Committee to working with the Office of Medical Student Education to develop and support a host of online curriculum materials. Despite these many projects we’ve witnessed many instances of her dedication to providing quality service, an enthusiastic attitude, and a unique ability to work effectively with many different groups at the School of Medicine.