Dean’s News

By Barbara I. Dewey, dean, University Libraries and Scholarly Communications

I was at the Association for Research Libraries last week and Penn State was recognized and congratulated because the Penn State Faculty Senate passed the Resolution for Open Access to Scholarly Publications submitted by Galen Grimes, associate professor, Information Sciences and Technology, Penn State Greater Allegheny, and chair, Faculty Senate Library, Information Systems, and Technology (LIST) Committee, on April 28, 2015. This is an important milestone for Penn State and it would not have happened without leadership from the Libraries. Congratulations to everyone who worked on this and especially for the leadership of Linda Friend, Patricia Hswe and Tom Reinsfelder at the LIST meetings during this past year. Many thanks also to Mike Furlough who began the discussions and wrote a forensic report on open access for the Senate in 2013. Other work done by many of you has happened as well to support this effort over the years.

Tim Pyatt was recognized at the Association for Research Libraries (ARL) Meeting last week as a graduate of the ARL Fellows Program. Congratulations to Tim.

Alexia Hudson-Ward completed the CIC Academic Leadership Program (ALP) which is designed to develop the leadership and managerial skills of faculty on the 15 CIC campuses who have demonstrated exceptional ability and administrative promise. Congratulations to Alexia.

Binh P. Le has been selected to participate in Penn State’s Administrative Fellows Program. The Fellows Program provides professional development opportunities for faculty and staff. Fellows serve under the mentorship of a senior level administrator. Binh’s mentor will be Provost Nick Jones.

All of you know that Lisa German has accepted the position of Dean of Libraries and Elizabeth D. Rockwell Chair for the University Libraries at the University of Houston. Fortunately she will be with us until near the end of July and Anne Langley will begin around that time. I will be discussing Lisa’s portfolio with administrators, DLC, key department heads and others soon to determine next steps and timelines.

We have an additional candidate interviewing for the position of Associate Dean for Technology and Digital Strategies. He is Michael Winkler, Director of Strategic Initiatives, University of Pennsylvania. Mr. Winkler will be giving a forum on Monday, May 11, 2015, at 9 a.m. in Foster Auditorium and via Media Site Live. Please participate if you can.