Charles Ten Brink calls it his “dream job.”
Ten Brink, currently the associate law librarian of the University of Chicago’s D’Angelo Law Library, has been named professor of law and director of library and technology services at MSU-Detroit College of Law.
“I’m thrilled,” Ten Brink told The State News from his Chicago office. “I can’t wait to get on board.”
Ten Brink spent the last 16 years with the University of Chicago, starting as a reference librarian in 1985. He said there are many things he hopes to accomplish at MSU.
“There are going to be a lot of interesting challenges,” he said. “The previous librarian who retired in 1999 had been aboard for 30 years and had some extraordinary skills.”
Ten Brink was referring to Professor Mario Ceresa, who was the college’s law librarian from 1970 until his retirement in 1999.
Since Ceresa’s retirement, the library has been run by acting director Hildur Hanna, who will return to her permanent position of associate director when Ten Brink starts March 19.
Hanna said she looks forward to working with Ten Brink.
“It was just a unanimous feeling among the librarians and staff that we were very excited to have Chuck as a candidate,” she said. “We were all very pleased when he accepted the offer.”
There are many goals she hopes to accomplish with Ten Brink, Hanna said.
“The goals are really to move forward on our strength and build on our technology,” she said. “There’s a lot of exciting things happening in our profession.”
Ten Brink agrees.
“I think we can offer research services that are on par with any law library in the country,” he said. “We’re really going to beef up electronic delivery of information.”
DCL Dean Terence Blackburn said Ten Brink is the cream of the crop.
“We’re extremely excited to get Chuck,” he said.
“He is a leader in the law libraries community and comes from the University of Chicago, which has one of the top two or three research- and scholarship-based law libraries in the entire country.”
Blackburn said Ten Brink will boost the capacity of the law library.
“One of the leadership issues that we’re looking to Chuck for is that of carrying us forward into the age of the technological library as well as the hard book library,” he said.
Ten Brink, who earned his undergraduate degree from MSU, said he sees the new job as a sort of homecoming.
“I’m looking forward to coming back there,” he said. “I’ve enjoyed Chicago a great deal, it’s a great institution. But I’m not really a big city person.”
