Jing Qiu
Jing Qiu retired December 31, 2022 with 30 years of service to WVU Libraries. Qiu began her career here as Coordinator of Bibliographic Instruction, which became Library Instruction. Six years ago, she assud the role of liaison with the Reed College of Media and the Department of World Languages, Literatures, and Linguistics.
Originally from Shanghai, China, Qiu majored in English and American literature and became a teacher of English for five years at Fudan University in China. She came to the United States in 1990 to pursue her graduate degree at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Although she was first admitted into the Teaching English as a Second Language program, she switched to library science because she liked the subject better.
As she looks back over her career, she most fondly remembers
all of the nice and interesting people – coworkers, faculty, staff, students –
whom she met and got to know.
“The last 30 years have been good. I will miss these people,”
Qiu said.
Going through old email and saw an email from 2018 in which
a faculty member relayed a story of a student calling her “the goat.” The
professor explained that the term was actually high praise; it means “greatest
of all time.”
“This stuck with me,” Qiu said. “Nice to know that I made a
difference with that one student on that encounter.”
Another highlight was being involved with the Libraries’ exchange
program with Shanghai University of Finance and Economics that began in 2012
when their president decided to send two librarians, Deyu “Ben” Gong and Yu
“Henry” Huang, to Morgantown for a semester.
The following year, Qiu and Martha Yancey, director of
Evansdale Library, traveled
to SUFE to represent WVU.
“Even though I was born and raised in Shanghai, I never knew
how libraries – academic or public – operated in China. That visit gave me the
opportunity to see that part. It was really interesting,” Qiu said.
Her advice to others: “Visit other countries you feel
connected to. It opens your horizon and changes your worldview. Sometimes it
doesn’t have to be an international trip; just step out of your local community
once in a while.”
In this next phase, Qiu plans to travel, spend time with her daughter, MoMo, who lives in Los Angles, and focus on the things she enjoys – a comfortable home, good food, and happy people.