After many productive years in the Department of Special Collections & University Archives, Janet Sakai is moving to a new position in Acquisitions. Janet joined us fourteen years ago as an administrative assistant to Roberto Trujillo, the Field Curator of Special Collections, but quickly demonstrated her talents as a cataloger.

Trained in copy cataloging by the previous rare books cataloger, Barry Hinman, Janet became an enormously productive cataloger, her high-quality records making a significant dent in the cataloging backlog for Special Collections. Janet handled titles from the 15th century to the 20th century, each with quality and style. She not only cataloged thousands of titles in the general antiquarian collection, but was also the sole cataloger of the books in three extremely important collections that came to Special Collections during her tenure here: The Jay Fliegelman Collection of Association Copies, The Charles J. Tanenbaum Collection of the 18th Century, and the Stephen Jay Gould Collection of the History of Science.   

 

Janet has been a fabulous colleague, also contributing to the department in public services and as a curatorial assistant. As such, she worked extensively with the preparations for hundreds of classes that came to Special Collections during her tenure here, as well as performing pre-order searching for antiquarian titles, resolving snags (in cataloging as well as payments), and compiling acquisitions lists. 

 

Her elegance and productivity are legendary. All of us will miss her, but we wish Janet all the best in this new endeavor in Acquisitions.