From Berkeley Library
Shifting gears: UC Berkeley Distinguished Librarian Award winner Ramona Collins on cycling, retirement, and the best part of her job
By Tor Haugan
What do librarianship and cycling have in common?
For Ramona Collins, both are powered by compassion, care, and a sense of community.
In her career, Collins has navigated an unexpected path from the legal profession to the library world. As a librarian at UC Berkeley, she helps people find the information that they need, and is a fierce champion of equity, inclusion, and justice.
As a cyclist, Collins has taken a different kind of journey, riding from San Francisco to Los Angeles six times — logging more than 3,000 miles down the California coast — to raise awareness and money as part of the nonprofit AIDS/LifeCycle.
Collins’ next adventure? Retirement. On June 26, she’ll celebrate a twin milestone: the final day of her 24-year career at the Berkeley Law Library and her 60th birthday.
Collins was recently named a winner of UC Berkeley’s Distinguished Librarian Award, recognizing excellence in librarianship and exceptional work in fulfilling the university’s missions of teaching and research. This year’s other honoree is Lisa Ngo, assistant head of the UC Berkeley Library’s Sciences Division. The biennial award is funded and presented by the Berkeley chapter of the Librarians Association of the University of California...
Ramona Collins is an I School graduate (’02) and works in the Law Library at UC Berkeley.
