Biographical Text
Professor Emerita of the Library Pat Farthing earned her B.A. degree in English at Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, Louisiana in 1963, and soon after, from 1964 until 1968, she served as a reference librarian at East Baton Rouge Parish Library, Midtown Branch, in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. During this time she earned a M.L.S. degree in library science (1966), also from Louisiana State University. Finally, she earned an Ed.S. degree in educational media (1978) from Appalachian State University (ASU) in Boone, North Carolina. After her work as a reference librarian in Baton Rouge, Farthing served as a reference librarian and Southeast Texas Major Resource Area Consultant in the Corpus Christi Public Library in Corpus Christi, Texas from 1968 until 1971. From 1971 to 1972, she served as an LSCA Title III Consultant for the Arizona State Library Extension Department in Phoenix, Arizona. It was in 1972 that Farthing came to ASU. Later, she served the university as the librarian for the Instructional Materials Center with various additional library responsibilities throughout the years such as Instructional Team Coordinator, Reference Team member, and collection development librarian for the Education and Instructional Materials Center Collections. She served in this position until 2008. Farthing became an assistant professor at ASU in 1979, received tenure in 1983, was promoted to associate professor in 1985, and, finally, became a professor in 1996. In July 2008, Farthing resigned her position and entered the three-year phased retirement program at ASU with responsibilities as librarian in the Instructional Materials Center and library outreach to area public school educators. Farthing was a member of the following professional organizations: • North Carolina Library Association (College & University section; Reference & Adult Services section; School Librarians section) • Phi Delta Kappa, Appalachian State University Chapter (over the years she held the offices of Historian, Vice President for Programs, faculty advisor, and President for several terms) • International Board on Books for Young People (IBBY) • United State Board on Books for Young People (the U.S. national section of IBBY) • North Carolina Academic Curriculum Librarians Interest Group (she was one of the original organizers of this interest group and served as its second Chair) Some of the many highlights of this personable and consummate professional person were: • In April 2000, Farthing went to Tucson, Arizona to make a presentation about the AppState Library's organizational change and progress/issues at the University of Arizona's national "Living the Future" conference • In 2003 the Instructional Materials Center became the sister library to the Biblioteca Th'uruchapita in Cochabamba, Bolivia, the only children's library in Bolivia. In that capacity Farthing provided kits of information (artifacts, books, CDs, etc.) about Bolivia to the school systems in the eight counties of the ASU Public School Partnership Program sponsored by the Reich College of Education. As school groups here in North Carolina use these kits to learn about Bolivia, they, in turn, do fundraising projects to send children's books in Spanish to Biblioteca Th'uruchapita. • In March 2007, Farthing went with other AppState Distance Learning librarians to Baltimore, Maryland, to present "Charting New Waters; Offering library instruction through a multimedia web-based product" at the 13th national conference of the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL). Finally, Farthing produced several research web sites such as: "Research Guide for English Language Learning," "Research Guide to the Holocaust," and "Children's Books as Messengers of Peace." Sources: Appalachian State University files, and long association. -Dr. Howe
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