Thomas Ivie, 1967-2021
Hearts are heavy at the Wyoming State Library today as we mourn the death of one of our own. Thomas Ivie passed away over the weekend, after a brief illness. He was 54.
His Celebration of Life will take place at 10 am on Friday, June 11, at the Cheyenne Hills Church, 7505 U.S. Highway 30 in Cheyenne. His obituary can be found at https://buff.ly/3cmMuTd.
Thomas was the WSL’s Research & Statistics Librarian. He originally joined us On October 30, 2013, as the Digital Initiatives Librarian working on the Wyoming Newspapers project. In June 2015 he moved into the Library Development Office to take over library statistics, while continuing to head up Wyoming Newspapers. He created special online exhibits on Wyoming’s 125th birthday and on the Heart Mountain Internment camp. His work on Wyoming Newspapers led to an invitation to speak on a digitization panel at the American Library Association Mid-Winter meeting in 2018.
Thomas on Snapshot Day 2017
Thomas worked closely with libraries across the state. He was Wyoming’s State Data Coordinator for the national Public Libraries Survey, conducted annually by the Institute of Museum and Library Services, and a coordinator for the federal Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA) grant.
The pandemic brought not only facemasks, but also extra federal grants to manage. Thomas and fellow LSTA Coordinator Susan Mark hold up their “Frequent Flyer” award from IMLS.
Showing off his John Lorenz Award for timely work on the public libraries survey with State Librarian Jamie Markus.
He worked with the state’s 13 institutions, providing expert advice and much-needed assistance to those libraries serving Wyoming’s incarcerated, elderly, and other groups in need. He also, with Paige Bredenkamp, put together the monthly training calendar, which is used nationally.
Thomas with fellow members of the LDO team — Chris Van Burgh (left) and Paige Bredenkamp.
Thomas’s career spanned over 20 years in state, academic, school, and public libraries. He held a bachelor’s degree in business, a master’s in public administration from the University of Idaho and a Master of Science in library and information science from the University of North Texas. He received a SWIM grant to earn his master’s degree, funded by an IMLS grant to a four-state cooperative of South Dakota, Wyoming, Idaho and Montana.He was a member of the Association for Rural and Small Libraries (ARSL).
Na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na STATMAN!
He was our STATMAN (always willing to don a Batman mask for the role) and our “What the Tech” guru, doing the work to bring that popular session to the Wyoming Library Association conference. He could not only dress as a pirate to promote a database, but also find and tell bad pirate jokes to go with the outfit. If he was on the planning committee for the next office party, you knew it’d be a good one. He was always ready with a smile or a laugh and was a bright spot in our day. He will be missed in our library.
Why stop at one pirate eye patch when you can wear two?
Thomas with (l to r) Tekla Slider, Skye from Paw Patrol, and Jamie Markus.
Thomas and Laramie County Library System’s Rachael Svoboda getting in the holiday mood.
At the 2017 holiday party.
A Snapshot Day bookface.
Thomas and Paul Goodson (no longer at the WSL) on the occasion of the 2017 solar eclipse.
Thomas’s presence in our library will be missed.