Archive

Posts Tagged ‘Staff Profiles Delaware’

Meet the Library Staff: John Pachkowski

January 17th, 2011 No comments

John M. Pachkowski, Esq., Adjunct Reference Librarian is at the Reference Desk every other Saturday during the fall and spring semesters. Not only does John answer questions, but he also files pages in four of the library’s CCH looseleaf reporters. He is well acquainted with Commerce Clearing House publications because during the week he works at home as a writer/analyst for the CCH Federal Banking Law Reporter. John is also part of the CCH Editorial Staff who produce the daily online Bank Digest, which tracks federal policies and regulations. John grew up in central New Jersey, graduated from Temple University, and was in the 1988 class of Delaware Law School, the last class before the school became Widener University School of Law. He worked during summers while in law school at the CCH office in Clark, NJ, and joined the staff after graduation.

After CCH was acquired by Wolters Kluwer in 1996 and closed the New Jersey office, John was able to start working from his home in Concordville, PA, which he shares with his wife, Mary Alice Peeling. He teaches a class for Advanced Legal Research explaining the use of looseleaf resources and the CCH IntelliConnect database. While working at home, John tends to a clowder of cats and his husky-mix Tulip keeps him company. He likes to cook and is renowned for his gourmet dinners to benefit PILA and St. John’s Episcopal Church, but he also enjoys going out to restaurants. John likes helping students and others who come to the Reference Desk on Saturdays because it gives him an opportunity to learn about aspects of law other than banking.

Meet the Library Staff: Scott DeMaris

January 10th, 2011 No comments

F. Scott DeMaris, Adjunct Reference Librarian, can be found at the Reference Desk every other Saturday during the fall and spring semesters. During the week Scott is a Senior Research Librarian at the law firm of Reed Smith LLP in Philadelphia. He grew up in Haddonfield and Cherry Hill, NJ, working in restaurants in Ocean City during the summers. After graduating from Western Maryland College, now McDaniel College, in Westminster, MD, he worked at Blackwell’s Book Services before attending Drexel to obtain a master’s degree in library science. Scott has always been interested in books and in music, specifically playing the guitar. He has played with many bands, including a month’s gig on the Greek island of Ios. His first job as a reference librarian was with White and Williams LLP. He has also been an electronic services librarian with Blank Rome LLP. Scott teaches a section of Widener’s Advanced Legal Research course about the real world of law firms. As a firm librarian, his services to attorneys are primarily through electronic means, so he enjoys the interaction with students and other users of our library when he is at our Reference Desk. Scott and his wife Teresa live in Voorhees, NJ, but they love to travel. He is fluent in German, she is fluent in Spanish, so they love to eat in German and Spanish restaurants. Scott continues to play and sing with various groups, specializing in the dobro resonator guitar, an instrument developed in Hungary in the 1920s.

Meet the Library Staff: Janet Lindenmuth

December 20th, 2010 No comments

lindenmuthJanet Lindenmuth, Reference/Electronic Services Librarian, grew up in nearby Ridley Park, PA, then attended the University of Delaware. Her interest in travel and the theater was developed during a semester spent studying in London. While working at the Villanova University Library, she decided to attend Drexel University to obtain a master’s degree in library science. She began her work at Widener as a cataloger but soon found that she enjoyed working at the Reference Desk. Since 1997, Janet has been solving both technological problems and research puzzles in her position that combines reference knowledge with electronic skill. She likes to find answers to difficult questions posed by faculty and students. Janet lives in the city of Wilmington with her cat Zoe, but she travels with friends as often as possible. She also attends theater productions, reads a lot, and likes finding interesting information while doing online genealogical research.

Meet the Library Staff: Maggie Adams

December 13th, 2010 No comments

adamsMargaret Stewart Adams, Reference/Outreach Librarian, is a Delaware native who graduated from Newark High School, then went on to study philosophy, with a minor in legal studies, at the University of Delaware a few blocks away. After working at Borders for two years, Maggie came to Widener as a library assistant in the director’s office in 1998. She received her master’s degree in library science from Syracuse University in 2002, after completing most of her work online and part on the Syracuse campus. She worked as our Serials Librarian, then became the Serials/Outreach Librarian because of her talent for training faculty and students to use online resources. Her favorite part of her work is sitting at the Reference Desk, ready to help whoever needs her expertise in print or online legal research. Some of Maggie’s inspiration to excel in the legal field came from her mother, Patricia Stewart, a Widener alumna who is a retired Family Court commissioner and has been an adjunct faculty member for 25 years, teaching various aspects of family law. Maggie and her husband Ken, a freelance graphic designer, are avid Eagles fans who watch every game. Maggie loves knitting and working in her garden at her house in Newark. She admits that her cats, Sadie and Wednesday, are two-year-old terrors. Summer vacations are usually spent with family at Long Beach Island, NJ.

Meet the Library Staff: Mary Alice Peeling

November 29th, 2010 No comments

peelingMary Alice Peeling, Head of Outreach Services/CALR Librarian, has been a familiar face at the Reference Desk for over 30 years. After graduating from Hood College and completing her library science degree at Villanova University, she started working at the Delaware Law School Library. Also known as Murie, she earned her J.D. in 1991, after the school changed its name to Widener, and passed the PA bar exam that summer. In October of the same year she married John Pachkowski, a Widener alumnus who currently also works at our Reference Desk on Saturdays. Murie grew up in Concordville, PA, where she and John now live in the early 19th century stone farmhouse her parents bought before she was born. The house is on the National Historic Register and is also shared by five cats and a dog.

Murie is a member of the Concordville Historical Society. She and John are active members of St. John’s Episcopal Church, whose congregation was first established in 1702. For many years Murie has been an enthusiastic supporter of the Girl Scouts Council of Eastern PA. She spends many hours creating beautiful quilts, some of which she uses as wall hangings in her office. She has been involved in so many facets of our library that she is known as the library’s “institutional memory.” Besides coordinating the Lexis and Westlaw services for the campus, conducting training sessions on Lexis and Westlaw, and promoting the library’s services to local attorneys, Murie also teaches Advanced Legal Research with Mary Marzolla.

Meet the Library Staff: Michael Slinger

November 15th, 2010 No comments

Slingernew135x180Michael Slinger is the Associate Dean for Information Services and Technology, Professor of Law and the Director of the Legal Information Center. He grew up in the Pittsburgh area, majored in history and English literature at the U. of Pittsburgh, received his master’s degree in library science from the University of South Carolina, and received his J. D. from Duquesne University.

Although Michael gained experience working in law firms, he sought an academic career and started teaching first year legal research as a librarian at Notre Dame Law

School. Six years later he moved to Boston, where he was Director of the law library for five years. He enjoyed 13 years as Director, Professor, and Associate Dean at Cleveland-Marshall College of Law before coming to Widener in 2008. Michael likes the variety of his work at Widener, which involves not only the administrative and technological aspects of the Library, but teaching his course “Legal Issues of the American Civil War.” He tries to teach his students to realize that legal issues are often ignored when history is taught in schools, and that the details of history should be used to guide future actions and laws.

Michael is happy to be in this area because of its many historic sites. He attends local Civil War Round Table meetings and conferences at the Civil War Institute at Gettysburg College. For relaxation he likes to attend musical events at Longwood Gardens.

Michael and his wife Cheryl have two Daughters, Rebecca & Sarah and their household is completed by a Miniature Schnauzer named Rugby.