Valerie Jan Bross

Valerie died on October 11, 2016. Honor her. Remember her.

The middle child of Rida and Irwin Bross, Valerie was born in Manhattan and spent her first years in the Whitestone neighborhood of the New York City borough of Queens. Her father Irwin was a researcher and educator in biostatistics and his work took to the family to the Buffalo, NY area, where Valerie and her brothers (Dean and Neal) were raised. Valerie graduated from Amherst Central High School.

In high school, she took a college freshman level course in Linguistics at the University of Buffalo (UB). The world-class linguist who taught Valerie’s class praised her abilities in languages and linguistics. Valerie’s mother was studying Linguistics at UB and working on her Masters.

Valerie’s college education took her to the University of Pennsylvania, in Philadelphia, where she majored in Linguistics. Her studies then took her to the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor where she earned her Master of Arts in Library Science. She’s maintained a lifelong fascination with languages — as well as with the many other aspects of the cultures of the world.

She first worked as a librarian at the Illinois State University. Librarians are encouraged to have a specialization, so Valerie left that job to earn a second Masters degree, this time in ESL (teaching English as a second language) from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UI). While studying at UI she participated in a student exchange program with the People’s Republic of China.

Fast forward through stays at the libraries of Central Missouri State University, Vanderbilt, Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, and California State University Stanislaus, she was welcomed to UCLA in 1998.

She helped establish UCLA as a national leader in serials cataloging. She has been a highly sought after trainer of others, as well as a thorough reviewer for new catalogers. She served or led many committees that developed the standards the library community uses in its cataloging work.

Valerie goes above and beyond. Just one example: When the UCLA library system had a backlog in Arabic and Persian language materials, she went out and learned Arabic to get the titles cataloged for researchers..

Her work has brought her professional awards both at UCLA and nationally. Quoting from one of her awards,

Bross combines a consistent and career-long profile as an early adopter, tester and trainer in the use of new tools and technologies, with an uncanny ability to convey to others her enthusiasm for learning and mastering new skills.

And from another,

Valerie’s work has been significant, not just because of her dedication, her energy, her analytical abilities and her creativity, all of which serve as an inspiration to her colleagues, but because she always supports and encourages the contributions of others..

Typical of the admiration she has elicited from colleagues at other libraries is this observation:

She was one of the best minds in the business as well as a generous spirit. I’ve often thought how wonderful it would be to have someone like Valerie as a mentor, and I’d like to think that her influence will live on in the people who were lucky enough to work with her.

Fundamental to Valerie’s world view is that people should be treated with respect and dignity. And she’s the third generation of staunch feminists. Her Dad’s mother (Nana) was a suffragette activist and when a general meeting on women’s rights was organized in Buffalo — Nana, Rida and Valerie were enthusiastic attendees.

Right away we at Caring House learned that Valerie is a serious person, who plans ahead. We also immediately saw in her the welcoming heart of a diplomat — making sure to connect us with her visiting family and friends, and them with us.

All,

Capping a stellar career, Valerie is retiring this week. As ERM/Continuing Resources Team Leader for the past 18 years, her work steadfastly maintained a focus on service. In the Library she very effectively built bridges between public services and technical services. While the most recent examples are the Bibliographic Framework Initiative and Linked Data, she has always gently challenged and informally organized us to explore and learn about the latest developments in our field.

From the time she first arrived at the Library in 1998, from Cal State Stanislaus, she has helped establish UCLA as a national leader in continuing resources cataloging. She has contributed to every significant standards development affecting serials cataloging in the past 18 years. The committees she led addressed such basic issues as using single versus separate records to describe print and electronic serials, which data elements are essential to include in a standard cataloging record, and the effectiveness of the new cataloging rules in Resource Description and Access.

By encouraging others and personally contributing to widespread testing, she convinced OCLC to make its Persistent URL (PURL) service permanent. Now when links break, only one person nationwide has to make a change on the PURL server, and the problem is solved in everybody else's OPAC!

She has been a highly sought after, outstanding and engaging trainer of others in serials cataloging, as well as a thorough reviewer for new catalogers. CONSER is the cooperative cataloging program in which libraries receive high-quality training from Library of Congress and subsequently contribute records that carry the same weight and authority as those from the Library of Congress. In a “funnel” project, interested libraries can obtain training to be able to contribute serial cataloging to OCLC, making it possible for more libraries to use records “as is.” The UC CONSER Funnel project was created in 2006 and has been a model of inclusiveness. CONSER membership expanded from UCLA and UCSD to all other serials catalogers in the UC system and the Funnel’s enthusiastic leader for the past decade has been Valerie.

Valerie received a trio of awards: LAUC-LA Librarian of the Year (2003), ALA Ulrich’s Serials Librarianship Award (2012), and California Library Association Technical Services Award of Achievement (2013). As the nomination letter for the ALA award noted, “Valerie’s work has been significant, not just because of her dedication, her energy, her analytical abilities and her creativity, all of which serve as an inspiration to her colleagues, but because she always supports and encourages the contributions of others.“

A lasting legacy of hers will be the incredible number of people she has encouraged, mentored, and developed.

Arrangements under the direction of Gates, Kingsley & Gates Smith Salsbury Funeral Directors, Culver City, CA.