Candidate for dean of KU Libraries to present Monday
LAWRENCE — The second of four candidates for the dean of KU Libraries position at the University of Kansas will make a public presentation during an upcoming campus visit.
Christine Avery, senior director of Commonwealth Campus Libraries and Special Projects at Penn State University, will deliver a talk at 2 p.m. Monday, Oct. 26, in Watson Library 3 West. The topic is Vision and Aspirations for the Role of Libraries in the Next Ten Years at a Flagship State University Such as KU.
The dean of libraries search committee — led by Saralyn Reece Hardy, director of the Spencer Museum of Art — invites students, faculty and staff to attend the presentation and provide feedback of their impressions.
Avery joined the University Libraries at Penn State in 1990 and was previously head of Reference and User Services at the University of Wyoming. In her work at Penn State she manages the 20 Commonwealth Campus libraries located across the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. She is also involved in strategic planning for the University Libraries, development efforts (fundraising), and she is leading new initiatives in global librarianship. Avery was an Association of Research Libraries (ARL) Research Library Leadership Fellow (2007-09) and a visiting program officer for ARL from 2010-2012 concentrating on the future of research library collections.
She has written on a variety of topics and is currently co-editing the book “Leading in the New Academic Library” with contributed chapters on various facets of current challenges. Avery is an active member of Educause and the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA). She received her master’s degree in library science from the University of Texas, a master’s degree in applied social research from Texas Christian University and a bachelor’s degree in sociology from Texas A&M University.
The university will release information about each candidate and his or her public presentation roughly 48 hours before his or her talk. Other candidates will be on campus:
- Candidate 3, Oct. 28-29
- Candidate 4, Nov. 2-3
The first candidate, Paul Bracke, visited campus Oct. 20-21.
Candidate presentations will be recorded and available for viewing online after the final candidate has appeared on campus. Evaluations of all candidates can be submitted online until 4:30 p.m. Nov. 4.
KU Libraries is the largest library system in Kansas. KU Libraries offers more than 4.2 million print volumes in seven campus facilities, including a state-of-the-art offsite storage facility. KU Libraries has extensive international holdings, including notable collections in Slavic, Latin America and East Asian studies. The Kenneth Spencer Research Library is recognized worldwide for its rare book, manuscript and archival holdings in history, literature and natural history. KU Libraries employs 50 faculty, 100 staff and 175 student employees.
KU Libraries is a leader in the open access movement on campus, nationally and internationally. Open Access works to make scholarly research more accessible to researchers and the public by using the advantages provided by digital and electronic communication. KU was the first public institution in the United States to adopt a faculty-led open access policy.