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

I recently returned from the American Library Association Mid-Winter Meeting in Philadelphia. Many Penn Staters were active participants in the meetings, boards, and committee work. I chaired the ACRL New Publications Committee. This committee is actively seeking book proposals of interest to ACRL constituents. Lisa German and I also attended the ARL January 23 regional design meeting hosted by Temple University. The regional design meetings are part of ARL’s strategic planning process and are being held to create a collaborative space for discussion about the future of the academic library and its place in higher education. This was a timely meeting given Penn State’s active engagement in strategic planning. I also attended the ARL Diversity and Leadership Program lunch and reception. Participants in the 2014 ARL Leadership Symposium included the Diversity Scholars, fellows from the 2014 Career Enhancement Program, and the ARL/SAA Mosaic Program. Mark Puente, director of ARL’s Diversity and Leadership Programs was the event host. Mark will be our Dean’s Diversity Forum speaker on February 24, at 1:30 p.m., in Foster Auditorium and on Media Site. I hope you can attend!

I also wanted you to know that Michael Adewumi, vice president for Penn State Global Programs and I have invited Barbara Ford, director of the Mortenson Center for International Librarianship and professor, University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana, to Penn State to help us develop strategies to support Penn State’s Global Engagement Network and global initiatives in general. Professor Ford will be meeting on February 3rd with Penn State Global Programs staff and a number of our faculty.