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Robert Lopresti will retire from Western Libraries on Aug. 31 after 31 years of service as a librarian at Western Washington University.

Lopresti joined Western Libraries in 1987 as the librarian for government documents, and has since served in many capacities, including as Head of Reference and Instruction, and also as the Map Librarian. In his role as Map Librarian, he was instrumental in the move of the Map Collection from Huxley College to Western Libraries. 

Lopresti is a full professor who has served as a research and instruction librarian to a number of colleges and programs, including Huxley College of the Environment and the Canadian-American Studies program.  He has also been a member of the university’s Sustainability Committee since its founding in 2005.

Over the years, Lopresti has been an instructor for the credit-bearing courses Library 201 and Library 125. Additionally, he has frequently served as a guest librarian in his library colleagues’ classes for sessions about government documents.

​Lopresti is also an award-winning author of several scholarly articles, two novels, and more than sixty mystery and fantasy stories. Lopresti’s short stories have been finalists for the Derringer Award five times, winning three times.  He has also won the Black Orchid Novella Award, and has been reprinted in Best American Mystery Stories and Year’s Best Dark Fantasy and Horror. 

Lopresti’s recent work of nonfiction, “When Women Didn’t Count, the Chronic Mismeasure and Marginalization of American Women in Federal Statistics,” is the result of four decades of work with government publications. It is also the 2018 recipient of the Lane/Virginia F. Saunders Memorial Research Award, presented by the Government Documents Round Table of the American Library Association for excellence in scholarship related to government information. 

“For more than 30 years, Rob’s  expertise and assistance have been indispensable entry points into the fascinating world of government information,” said Dean of Libraries Mark Greenberg.  “Countless faculty, students, staff, and community members relied on his knowledge to navigate the complexities of local, state, and federal documents.  That knowledge culminated recently in his award-winning book on the marginalization of women in federal statistics – a fitting capstone to his distinguished career.”

A retirement celebration in Lopresti’s honor will be held from 3-5 p.m. on Thursday, Aug. 16 in the Solarium (Old Main 590).  For more information, please contact LibraryAdministration@wwu.edu.