Remembering Roxanna Jones

UK Libraries lost a long-time friend and colleague, Roxanna Jones, on Monday, October 24, 2016.

Roxanna began her career at the Libraries in 1975 as a student assistant in the Circulation Department and earned her Masters of Science in Library Science in 1978. She quickly rose through the ranks to stacks assistant, stacks supervisor, and student supervisor. As student supervisor, she was second in command in Circulation, the highest-ranking staff member in the library system, and supervisor of more than 50 students.

In 1984 she became the interlibrary loan librarian, serving as the head of the department, then became responsible for collection management in the Government Publications/Maps Department. In 1988, she played a key role on the committee to review and revise the Kentucky State Plan for Federal Depository Library Services. In 1996 she became a public services librarian, serving our students, staff, faculty and community at the reference desk, teaching countless classes in research techniques, and maintaining our reference and other key collections.

Always ready to help when needed, Roxanna was dedicated to her work at the Libraries, the people she served, and her colleagues. Roxanna will be deeply missed.

“Roxanna always had a smile on her face no matter what.  I never really saw her when she was not in a good humor.  She was delightful to be around.”
– Toni Greider, Director of International Programs

“I liked being on desk with Roxanna, and I really liked her help in training our graduate assistants. Roxanna believed that the patron always came first and did her best to instill this in everyone who worked with her. She was one of our long-time reference librarians, and as the saying goes, probably forgot more about government documents and reference work in general than I'll ever know. Sometimes she didn't have very much patience and she could be demanding, but you could always count on her when you really needed help. Most of all, she was kind, thoughtful, generous, and loved cats and Bruce Springsteen. Our department will never be quite the same again.”
– Laura Hall, Library Manager, W.T. Young Library Reference Services

“Roxanna had a keen wit and shared her sense of humor with a deep heart-felt laugh which was easily infectious.  She will be missed.”
– Kelly Vickery, Director for Library Information Technology

“Roxanna was one of the hardest working staff members I have ever supervised, and she was very devoted to providing access to government information, even after the Government Publications Dept. merged with the Reference Dept. in 1994.  I always appreciated her efforts to remind colleagues how valuable government information resources could be as they worked with faculty, students and staff. She will leave a void in our organization that will be hard to fill—I will miss her.”
– Sandee McAninch, Head of Federal Depository Unit/Regional Depository Librarian