Thanks Ronda! Thanks Paige!

Dan Seldin hired me in the fall of 1990 to work in the map collection of Indiana University’s Geography and Map Library when I was a graduate student in Bloomington, Indiana. He administered a geography test to all job applicants and this drew the ire of the Human Resources Department of the IU Libraries. The administrative brass wanted Dan to employ only work study students or MLS interns. But Dan persisted in his hiring practices and that opened the door for a number of international students who were looking for a second job to supplement the income from positions as graders or associate instructors. It was an interesting place to work.I learned a lot working there.

Dan was a bit of a micro manager until he was convinced that the students understood the classification schemes used in the map collection, both the G-schedule of the Library of Congress classification system and an alphanumeric system, a variation of the AGS system, originally created by staff working in the library of the American Geographical Society.  But once Dan trusted the students then they would have a library key, the run of the place, flexible work hours, and work on their own projects. Dan was a great boss. His father had been a National Labor Relations Board negotiator. And Dan followed in his footsteps, he was an unrepentant New Deal Democrat.

Every Friday morning Dan would close his office door and he would be on the phone with his friend Paul Stout, map librarian at Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana. Those who knocked on that door during the phone call did so at their own peril. They took their lives in their hands.

In 1991 Dan supervised the move of the Geography and Map Library into the Student Building, into a space that had originally been designed as the Lady’s Bathhouse. My spouse Chrystyna still had a swimming class there in 1989. And she was amazed when she saw the space after its conversion into the map library. It had a huge Palladian window and when I worked the circulation desk I would feel the warmth of the sun gradually rising on my back. It was a beautiful library.

Dan was a great collector and used seven summers working at the Library of Congress to add depth to IU’s collection which had started out as a departmental library. In 1997 he transitioned into a map cataloger position. He would still visit the library occasionally when I started there as branch coordinator in 2002.

In 2009 the IU Libraries decided to shut down the Geography and Map Library and move the collections into the Big House. The maps are today housed on the second floor of the Wells Library together with the Government Publications reference collection, which works well. Lou Malcomb, Dan’s successor as Geography Librarian, was also the head of the Government Publications Department. She took good care of the maps, held everything together when the collections were moved.  Dan retired at that time and I transitioned into his job as map cataloger. Dan’s advice was to start by reading and working through Paige Andrew’s “How to Catalog Sheet Maps: The Basics.” And that was sound advice.

Dan would still stop by occasionally. When he decided to stop driving we bought Frida, his green 1994 Honda, named after Frida Kahlo, which served us well. Dan loved railroads and always related stories about his most recent railroad trips. He had an interest in transportation geography and was a railroad history buff.  I remember a trip to Monticello, Indiana where the Monon Railroad Historical‐Technical Society had its annual meeting. I walked his baggage into the hotel and there was a crowd of people there who were glad to see him. Dan was a walking encyclopedia of Indiana railroad history. We drove up to Chicago for the weekend and picked him up on our way back. Dan grew up in Shaker Heights, one of Cleveland’s streetcar suburbs. Chrystyna, my spouse, grew up in Cleveland, so the two of them chatted non-stop about Cleveland landmarks and Cleveland history.  

--Heiko

Heiko Mühr

Map Metadata and Curatorial Specialist

Earth Sciences & Map Library
50 McCone Hall
University of California
Berkeley, CA 94720-6000

[log in to unmask]

he/his/him  

On Tue, Jun 30, 2020 at 1:33 PM Andrew, Paige G. <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

I have already shared the sad news with MAGIRT members but wanted those of you who knew Dan Seldin, long time map librarian and map cataloger at Indiana University, to also learn of Dan's passing recently. I received this information from the current (and new) maps cataloger at Indiana, Ronda Sewald initially and waited to find out if a biography written about Dan at the time of his retirement could be shared publicly. You will see by Ronda's note below that it is and so I am sharing it with anyone interested. Also, an obituary notice is in the local Bloomington newspaper but everything but a brief summary is behind a paywall. The notice reads:

Newspaper June 23, 2020 | Herald-Times (Bloomington, IN)

Author: Staff Writer | Section: Obituaries

23 Words

Daniel Thomas Seldin, 75

BLOOMINGTON — Daniel Thomas Seldin, 75, of Bloomington, died Saturday. Arrangements are pending at Allen Funeral Home.

Apparently a full obituary will be forthcoming. 

I hope I do not have to share news such as this about colleagues for a long time to come, but it makes me realize just how long I have been in the map librarianship field. Just like a family, you welcome new members into the fold, you watch your colleagues grow and change, and then sadly we see them leave us too. Here is Dan's biography (written in 2009):

Hi everyone,

I just wanted to follow up that Dan's biography is openly available online through IU's Emeriti House as part of its 2009 Retired Faculty Biographies: 

https://institutionalmemory.iu.edu/aim/handle/10333/6339.

I've also realized my mental calendar was off and that the date of Dan's passing would have been Saturday, June 20th.

My thanks to you all for your warm welcome to MAGIRT. I look forward to participating in the future and am sorry to start things off on such a sad note. My deepest condolences to those of you who knew Dan.

Best,

Ronda