Kate Carpenter retires
Kate Carpenter retired in Feb. 2022 after 44 years of service as a librarian, 30 of those years at UIC. She was Associate University Librarian for Health Sciences and Associate Dean from 2007 until her retirement. From 2007-2016, she concurrently served as Director, GMR Regional Medical Library in the Network of the National Library of Medicine. Carpenter held previous appointments at UIC, including the inaugural Bibliographer for the Health Sciences during 1988-1993, and several other positions at the Library of the Health Sciences during 1979-1987, including Documents Librarian, Head, Interlibrary Loan Librarian, and Acquisitions Librarian. For the remaining 14 years of experience, she served as University Librarian at two universities, Valparaiso University and Purdue University Calumet (now Purdue University Northwest), both in Indiana.
In March 2022, the University of Illinois Board of Trustees approved Carpenter's appointment as Professor Emerita.
Carpenter was educated at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (M.S., Library Science, 1977, and A.B., Sociology, 1976). She was selected to attend several leadership development programs, including the HERS/Bryn Mawr Summer Institute for Women in Higher Education Administration (1986), the UCLA Senior Fellows Institute (held at Long Island University in 1995), the ACRL/Harvard Leadership Institute (2000), and the Committee on Institutional Cooperation (CIC) seminar for Department Executive Officers (2009). She was a Fellow in the ARL Research Library Leadership Fellows Program (2010-2012).
Carpenter has published widely, including Sourcebook on Parenting and Child Care (Phoenix: Oryx Press, 1994) and “Collection Development: Childcare Selections to Grow On,” (Library Journal 117 [13]: 67-71, 1992). Carpenter co-authored the “U. S. Periodical Price Index for 1996,” (American Libraries 27 [5]: 97-105, 1996), as well as editions of the index in American Libraries in 1993-95 and Library Journal in 1989-92. She served as editor for Library Administration and Management in 2001-02 (and as associate editor in 1999-00). She was elected Secretary/Treasurer for the Association of Academic Health Sciences Libraries in 2014-17, and organized Library of the Health Sciences as the host of the two onsite sessions of the Medical Library Association’s Research Training Institute 2018-20. She was appointed to the Advisory Council for the Ithaka S+R study Organizational Trends in Academic Health Sciences Libraries in 2020.
Carpenter led the UIC Library Diversity Committee in 2013-2018 and was a member of UIC's Vice Chancellor for Health Affairs Faculty Task Force. She chaired and served on numerous library and university committees, including chair of the Library Promotion and Tenure Committee in 1988-90.
In retirement, she is spending time with her husband John, daughter Caleigh, and her sister Patricia, as well as making good use of her gym membership, reading books, and enjoying social life and cultural activities that were scarce during the pandemic.