After 37 years of service, Irene Jones has retired from Stanford University Libraries.

Fluent in Russian, Ukrainian, and German, she served as a German translator during the latter years of living in a refugee camp in Austria from 1945-1952. Her language skills were invaluable when Irene began work at the Hoover Institution as a 50%FTE Library Specialist, specializing in Slavic Serials. Her responsibilities included working with a few hundred titles published in Russian, Polish, Ukrainian, Czechoslovakian, Bulgarian, Belarusian, and Yugoslavian/Serbo-Croatian.

In the late seventies, Irene moved to a fulltime library specialist position in Hoover Conservation. Her responsibilities expanded to repairing materials in the Hoover Collection and filming English and German newspapers. In 1987, she continued half-time in Conservation and returned half-time to Slavic Serials.

In 1990, Irene came to work in Green Library as a part-time Library Specialist I, Bindery, while continuing part-time at Hoover; she increased to fulltime at Green in 2001. During the 2003 Current Periodicals (CPR) Project, Irene integrated hundreds of Slavic titles into the LARS (bindery) database and onto the master title list. Along with the CPR team, in four months, she helped process 15,500 bundles for the bindery. 

In 2006, Irene was promoted to a Library Specialist II, Serials at Green Library. Her new responsibilities included the management of the CPR master title list, which included more than 7,000 titles, and processing the issues of all dead, ceased, and suspended titles. Over the span of ten years (2003-2013), Irene processed thirty-five percent of CPR production. 

In 2010, Irene contributed to the team effort to promote the international magazines in the CPR collection.  She reviewed and recommended, to the Slavic curator, the transfer of Slavic popular culture magazine titles to the IC-Display. 

We are grateful to Irene for her dedication, attention to detail, and accuracy in her work. Her care and spunky spirit will be missed. Stanford University Libraries wishes her, the very best in her well-deserved retirement.