González, Nelly S. 1930–

(Nelly Sfeir de González)

PERSONAL: Born July 1, 1930, in Cochabamba, Bolivia; daughter of Emilio (in business) and Maria (a homemaker; maiden name, Cavero) Sfeir; married Walter González (a civil engineer), January 30, 1953 (died October 17, 1979); children: Walter, Mauricio, Javier, Fernando, Sergio A. Ethnicity: "Hispanic American." Education: University of San Andres, J.D.; University of Illinois, M.L.S. Religion: Roman Catholic.

ADDRESSES: Home—908 Centennial Dr., Champaign, IL 61821. Office—Latin-American and Caribbean Library, 324 Main Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1408 West Gregory Ave., Urbana, IL 61801. E-mail—ngonzale@uiuc.edu.

CAREER: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, Latin-American and Caribbean bibliographer, 1975–82, head of Latin-American and Caribbean Library, 1983–. Member, Seminar on the Acquisition of Latin American Library Materials.

AWARDS, HONORS: José Toribio Medina Award, 1995.

WRITINGS:

(With Margaret Eustella Fau) Bibliographic Guide to Gabriel García Márquez, 1979–1985, Greenwood Press (Westport, CT), 1986.

Bibliographic Guide to Gabriel García Márquez, 1986–1992, Greenwood Press (Westport, CT), 1995.

(Editor and contributor) Modernity and Tradition: The New Latin-American and Caribbean Literature, 1956–1994, Seminar on the Acquisition of Latin-American Library Materials (Albuquerque, NM), 1996.

Bibliographic Guide to Gabriel García Márquez, 1992–2002, Greenwood Press (Westport, CT), 2003.

Contributor to books, including Latin-American Economic Issues: Information Needs and Sources, Seminar on the Acquisition of Latin-American Library Materials (Albuquerque, NM), 1984; Continuity and Change in Brazil and the Southern Cone: Research Trends and Library Collections for the Year 2000, Seminar on the Acquisition of Latin-American Library Materials, 1988; Artistic Representation of Latin-American Diversity: Sources and Collections, Seminar on the Acquisition of Latin-American Library Materials, 1993; Societies under Constraint: Economic and Social Pressures in Latin America, Seminar on the Acquisition of Latin-American Library Materials, 1997; and Documenting Movements, Identity, and Popular Culture in Latin America, Seminar on the Acquisition of Latin-American Library Materials, 2000. Contributor to professional journals, including Americas, Latin-American Research Review, Collection Building, Latin American Indian Literatures Journal, and Antropológica. Member of editorial board, Bolivian Studies, 1991–2001; editor, Bolivian Studies Journal, 2001–.

WORK IN PROGRESS: Bibliographic Guide to Gabriel García Márquez, 2002–, an online publication.

SIDELIGHTS: Nelly S. González told CA: "Librarians provide guidance to scholars during their research activities. It gives me pleasure to contribute to their quest with bibliographic information that is essential to their work. I feel a part of their research since I work closely with them in providing information. This is even more exciting when I am able to assist students by teaching them strategies for finding information, since I believe that the success of their studies and their pursuit of a career depends on how well they know their library.

"My research is concentrated in publications with bibliographic content. My purpose is to help scholars, students, and the community with tools that provide them with the information necessary for their research. Because of the nature of my research, my work is constantly searching for sources that include the subjects of my interest and classifying them, providing information on each source. In this manner, my completed work is like a compass, directing scholars to their own topics of interest. This work is very laborious and requires exactitude and discernment to evaluate the quality of the sources.

"My main work is compiling the bibliographic guide to one of the most celebrated Latin American writers: Gabriel García Márquez, winner of the 1982 Nobel Prize for literature. There is plenty of information on him, and thus my work is constant. I also work with smaller bibliographies on themes that are obscure and on specific topics and subjects that are difficult to locate in library collections."