On 16 April 2026, we had a retirement party for Rene Belling after her 37 years' working at Santa Cruz Public Libraries (SCPL). It is truly a giant milestone to any new comers.
Rene's retirement marks the end of the old guard at our former Processing Team which consisted of four full time employees, two for print and two for media at Technical Services (TS), now Collection Management Services (CMS). Since December 1999 when I started working at TS, the team had been reduced to two people who later morphed into copy catalogers. Rene was the last standing old guard after the retirement of her book counterpart Jeff in 2023. Now the team is succeeded by two young catalogers who are assisted by a team of ad hoc processors.
In honor of the end of an era as well as her long service, Rene invited all SCPL's old guards alive, local and mobile. The guest list included three directors, three CMS managers, and her coworkers within and outside CMS. A retirement party turned into an unintended SCPL reunion. Everyone in the department was asked beforehand to contribute, either cash, food or labor. For my contributions, I donated some cash, two army-sized trays of chow mein (chicken & vegetarian) and a big bowl of home fried rice. Looking around so many mouths, I was a little relieved to see my noodles and rice having some mileage, before their total consumption.
As usual, there was a farewell choir and Victor's trivial quiz. My saving grace was the presence of former Head of Cataloger Dody and Collection Development Manager Gail. We three chatted at our table and decided to depart before the quiz winner was announced. The glory belonged to the winner and party honoree.
Happy Retirement, Rene! Farewell to the old guard!!
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