Name: Diane Zabel
Title: The Louis and Virginia Benzak Business Librarian and Acting Head,

Organization: Schreyer Business Library, The Pennsylvania State University
Email: dxz2@psu.edu

Born and Lived: I was born and raised in Antigo, a small town in northern Wisconsin. I loved the time I spent in central Illinois while I earned my master of urban planning degree and master of science in library and information science from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. I have lived in State College, Pennsylvania for the past 27 years.

Professional Career and Activities: I have held an endowed position (and the rank of Librarian)  at Penn State University’s main campus since 2000.  Additionally, I have served as Acting Head of the Schreyer  Business Library since summer 2009. I have been a full-time librarian at Penn State since 1986.  I am an active member of the American Library Association, having served as President of the Reference and User Services Association (RUSA) and as an elected ALA  councilor-at-large. I recently competed a six year term as Editor of Reference & User Services Quarterly, a leading refereed journal in the field.  I am the editor of Reference Reborn: Breathing New Life into Public Services Librarianship (a monograph  published by Libraries Unlimited in 2011).  I serve on the editorial board of the Journal of Finance & Business Librarianship.

Family: My husband, an architectural historian, is Head of the Department of Art History at Penn State University. Our son is a master’s degree candidate in Urban Planning at UCLA.

In My Spare Time: I try to make as many trips as possible to the West Coast in order to visit our son in Los Angeles and family members in San Francisco and Vancouver.

Favorite Books: Travel essays, cozy British mysteries, and the works by (and inspired by) Jane Austen.

Pet Peeves: People who are late.

Philosophy: It is important that you are passionate about your work.

Most Memorable Career Achievement: I was awarded the ALA Isadore Gilbert Mudge Award in 2011, an award established by ALA to recognize distinguished contributions in reference librarianship.

Goals I Hope to Achieve Five Years from Now: To slow down a bit.

How/Where Do I See the Industry in Five Years: Electronic, electronic, and more electronic (with many fewer players in terms of vendors).