I hope you and yours are well and managing amidst the current crisis. I'm writing to let you know that, after giving it a great deal of thought, I've decided to take the university's voluntary early retirement offer. I'll be retiring from the Harvard Library and the Aga Khan Program as of the end of December.

I'm doing so with very mixed feelings -- I've enjoyed my job at the Fine Arts Library and I've loved working with my wonderful colleagues and I will miss them. I will also miss my day-to-day interactions with faculty, students and visiting scholars, assisting them with their research, finding solutions to their reference questions, and the satisfaction of helping to build, preserve and promote our library's amazing collections.

I might have put off retirement for a while longer if the pandemic hadn't hit. But now, after 35 years on the job, I believe the time is right for me. And working is less appealing without full access to the people and the materials of the library.

I hope that we can stay in touch, through ARIS-L and in person, and I look forward to becoming a regular visitor to libraries once again after this pandemic is over.

All the best,

András

Bibliographer in Islamic Art and Architecture