For immediate release
April 25, 2008

Janet Flowers Retires as Head of Acquisitions
Download a photograph of Flowers: http://www.lib.unc.edu/spotlight/media/images/flowers_janet.jpg

CHAPEL HILL - Janet L. Flowers retired April 1, 2008, as Head of Acquisitions at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Library on the anniversary of her 38th year of employment with the Library.

Flowers graduated from UNC with a B.A. in French in 1966, and an M.S.L.S. in 1967, and was inducted into the Beta Phi Mu, Epsilon Chapter. Her first professional position was as a reference librarian at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, N.C. She came to UNC as Romance Languages Cataloger in 1970, becoming Assistant Head, then Head, of Bibliographic Searching before her appointment as Head of Acquisitions in 1982.

During her career, Flowers was a regular participant in and pre-conference leader on topics related to acquisitions management and vendor negotiations at the annual Charleston Conference for Issues in Book and Serial Acquisition. She also was active in the North Carolina Serials Conference, where she made a number of presentations. She published widely on topics related to general management and management of the acquisitions process. Her article, "Operational Efficiencies in Acquisitions to Minimize the Impact of Budget Cuts upon Library Materials Budgets" (The Bottom Line, 2003) won the "Highly Commended" award from the Literati Club in 2004. Her other articles include "Ethics within the Serials Family" (Library Collections, Acquisitions & Technical Services, 2002) and "Negotiations with Library Materials Vendors: Preparation and Tips" (The Bottom Line, 2003). As a personal interest, Flowers authored "Starting a Church/Synagogue Library" (North Carolina Libraries, 1987).

A member of the American Library Association and the Association of Library Collections and Technical Services, Flowers served most recently on ALCTS's Education Committee (2001-03) and Technology Committee (1996-2000). She was also Co-Chair of the ALCTS Vendors of Library Materials Discussion Group (2001-02) and most recently presented the paper "Managing the Acquisitions Workflow of Monographs" to that group in 2006. As a member of the North Carolina Library Association, she chaired its Library Administration and Management Section (1992-94) and also served two terms on the NCLA Executive Board (1992-94 and 1995-97).

At UNC, Flowers was an elected member of the University's Faculty Council (1981-84 and 1988-91) and served on the University of North Carolina Faculty Assembly (1982-85), with representatives from all campuses in the UNC system. She was president (1978-79) of the Librarians' Association at UNC-Chapel Hill and served on several LAUNC-CH committees. She was a member of the Carolina Academic Library Associates Steering Committee and was a member of the steering committee overseeing a reorganization, now in process, of the Library's technical services operations. Flowers lectured frequently for the Collection Management classes at UNC's School of Information and Library Science and was also president (1982-83) of the SILS Alumni Association. Over the years, Flowers mentored many SILS students on matters relating to management and acquisitions challenges.

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