Charles Cason, Director of Business and Accounting Services - Charles has served as Director of Business and Accounting Services for Amigos since May 1999, responsible for managing the organization’s business operations and monitoring its financial performance. Previously, Charles served as Director of Administration for the North Texas Council of Governments, one of a number of positions he held with that organization. He is a graduate of Hardin-Simmons University, Abilene, TX, where he received a Bachelor of Business Administration degree in Accounting, and Bachelor of Arts degree in Bible and Psychology. Charles served in the U.S. Army at Fort Bliss, TX, where he held the rank of captain.
Bonnie Juergens, Executive Director - Bonnie Juergens has been Executive Director of Amigos Library Services since 1989.
She earned her MLS from the University of Arizona, Tucson, and her BA from MacMurray College, Jacksonville, IL. She has worked for two regional library networks, a library automation vendor, in both academic and public libraries, and has provided consulting services to libraries of all types.
Juergens has served on the American Library Association Council, as a member of the Board of Directors of the Library & Information Technology Association, and as a Delegate to the OCLC Members Council. She chaired the Committee responsible for developing the Texas Library Association's Leadership Development Program [TALL Texans] and served on its Steering Committee from 1992-1996. She worked with library leaders throughout Texas to plan and implement TexShare, a statewide library resource-sharing program that serves over 600 libraries across the state, many of which are Amigos members.
Juergens has published a variety of articles on library resource sharing, technology training, and application of information technology in libraries.
Arta Kabashi, Continuing Education Librarian - Arta currently teaches reference communication, virtual reference, reference policy, reference tools, and reference management at Amigos Library Services. Before taking on her current role, Arta worked at the Humanities Desk at the University of North Texas Willis Library where she provided reference assistance and taught bibliographic instruction to patrons. She also taught undergraduate courses in history at Texas Tech University.
Arta holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in History from Harding University, a Master of Arts degree in History from Texas Tech University, and a Master of Science in Library and Information Science from the University of North Texas. She is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in Information Science from the University of North Texas.
Laura Kimberly, Associate Director and Manager of Continuing Education Services - Laura coordinates training and educational programs for Amigos. She has been with Amigos more than 20 years as a trainer for cataloging and technical services and as manager of training and support services. She has been instrumental in developing Amigos’ distance and online learning programs, beginning with production of six satellite teleconferences in the 1990s and implementing the internet based distance learning program, Learning @ Amigos.Org.
Previously she held positions in cataloging, acquisitions, and technical services at the Law Library, Indiana University School of Law in Indianapolis, and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, Judges Library. Laura is actively involved in several professional associations including the Texas Library Association and American Library Association. For 2007-2008, she is the Secretary/Treasurer of the TLA Continuing Education Providers Interest Group. Laura holds Bachelor of Science and Master of Science degrees in library science from Florida State University and has earned a Professional Development Certificate in Distance Learning from the University of Wisconsin.
Gina Minks, Imaging & Preservation Service Manager - Gina directs the preservation and digital imaging training, consulting, and disaster assistance programs off ered to libraries, museums, and cultural heritage institutions. Prior to accepting the IPS position, Minks served as Web and Digitization Librarian and Special Collections Librarian at the University of Tulsa’s McFarlin Library, Tulsa, OK, an Amigos member. Additionally, she is co-founder of OKDigital, a statewide digitization resource for Oklahoma librarians. She has also served on the Amigos IPS Advisory Council the past three years.
Christine Peterson, Continuing Education Librarian - Christine provides training, support and consulting services for Amigos member libraries in the areas of Internet and technology. Prior to joining Amigos, Christine worked for eight years as the automation consultant and then manager for the Continuing Education and Consulting Department of the Texas State Library and Archives Commission. Before that, she was the systems librarian for both San Antonio College and the Florida Institute of Technology.
Christine holds Bachelor of Science in Music and Master of Library Science from Indiana University, Bloomington.
Tim Prather, Continuing Education Librarian - Tim handles training, support, and consulting for Amigos member libraries related to OCLC resource sharing services including interlibrary loan, document delivery and union listing. He served previously as Interlibrary Loan Librarian at the Austin Public Library and at Texas A & M University's Sterling C. Evans Library. Tim has an MLS and a BA in English from the University of Texas at Austin.
Carol Seiler, Continuing Education Librarian – Carol provides training, support and consulting services for Amigos member libraries in the areas of Cataloging and Technical Services.
Carol has experience working as a librarian in public, newspaper, and medical/ academic libraries in a variety of positions. She has also worked for a serials vendor as a trainer. Additionally, Carol previously worked for Amigos on retrospective and reclassification projects. In 2008, Carol completed her specialization in Consumer Health Information from the Medical Library Association. Carol holds a Bachelor of Arts in English/History from Angelo State University and a Master of Library Science from Texas Woman’s University.
Bill Walker, Imaging Field Services Officer - Imaging Field Services Officer for Amigos' Imaging and Preservation Service, with primary responsibility for conducting training classes in digital imaging.
Bill comes to this position after 3 1/2 years of service as Library Liaison Officer for cataloging and metadata. Prior to joining Amigos in 1996, Bill served as Music Cataloger at Southern Methodist University. He has a Bachelor of Music degree in classical guitar and a Bachelor of Music Education degree from the University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, a Master of Music in music theory and a Master of Science in Library Science from the University of North Texas, Denton.
Robert Watkins, Associate Executive Director, Member Program Development (MPD) - MPD is responsible for Membership recruitment, OCLC sales for technical services, reference services, resource sharing, and A-Plus Services. Robert has served Amigos 15 years in many capacities, including, Director, Amigos Database Services. Robert holds Bachelor of Arts and Master of Library Science degrees from University of Texas at Austin. He was previously self-employed as a library consultant and head of Current Journals, Microforms, and Media at the University of Houston M.D. Anderson Library.
