Becky Ryder, who has served as the director of the prestigious Keeneland Library for the past 13 years, will retire at the end of October and be succeeded by Roda Ferraro, who has done previous work for the library, Keeneland announced on Wednesday. Ryder, who was the head of preservation services at the University of Kentucky Libraries before joining Keeneland in 2010, oversaw the conversion of Keeneland’s manual card catalog into an online catalog system during her tenure. She also began a long-running project to digitize all of Daily Racing Form’s paper archives, and she started the Keeneland Library Lecture Series, which allows authors who have undertaken research at the library to give public presentations on their work. :: Get ready for summer racing with a DRF Formulator Quarterly PP plan “During my career, I’ve had the good fortune to have had positions I truly loved: music, books, photographs, travel, book and paper conservations, digital library development and the rich history of Thoroughbred racing,” Ryder said, in a release. “I have to say that the 13 years working with the Keeneland family have been the very best in my professional lifetime.” Ferraro, who was previously a head librarian at the Keeneland Library, will take over in the director’s role “effective immediately,” but will be assisted by Ryder through a transition period ending with Ryder’s retirement on Oct. 31. “I welcome the opportunity to build, preserve and create access to our renowned collections in support of emerging industry research,” Ferraro said. “There is also tremendous potential to expand the library’s reach through education and outreach programs, and I am excited to continue to meet the evolving needs of our growing global patron base.” :: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.