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Brian L. Foster 277-2611 Carolyn Gonzales 277-5920

March 27, 2002

CANDIDATES FOR UNM LIBRARY DEAN NAMED

University of New Mexico Provost Brian L. Foster announced today the five finalists for the Dean of the Library and the schedule for the community open forums.

The candidates and dates for the open forums for the Dean of the Library are:

All forums are scheduled at 4 p.m.

Camila Alire retired this year as dean of the Colorado State University libraries. Dean and full professor from 1997-'02, Alire was responsible for administration, public and technical services, library technology services, planning, archives and special collections, human resources, fiscal services and development. She earned a master's in library science (MLS) from the University of Denver and a doctorate in education from the University of Northern Colorado. From 1991-'97, Alire was dean and director of the Auraria Library at the University of Colorado at Denver. The joint-use library serves three institutions on one urban campus. She has published numerous articles on diversity and leadership.

William Aguilar, vice president of Information Resources and Technology (IRT) at California State University in San Bernardino since 1992, is the first person to serve in this capacity. He earned a doctorate in Library and Information Science from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, and MLS from the University of Wisconsin, Madison. As vice president of IRT, he is responsible for an $11 million budget for eight departments. He has also served as university librarian at the same institution. Prior to that, from 1982-'88, he served as director of library services at Central Connecticut State University, in New Britain, Connecticut. He is a founding member of Advanced Networking for Minority Serving Institutions, Southern California Region.

Since 1993, John Meador has served as dean and professor of the University Libraries at the University of Mississippi. He earned a master's in English and folklore and MLS from the University of Texas at Austin. He also studied educational administration at the University of Utah. Between 1984 and 1993, while dean of library services at Southwest Missouri State, Meador founded the Friends of the Library and saw to a 300 percent budget increase and an acquisition expenditure increase of 400 percent.

James L. Mullins has served as associate director for administration at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) libraries since 2000. He oversees a $17 million budget, human resources and facilities planning. He earned a MLS from the University of Iowa and a doctorate in library administration from Indiana University. From 1996-2000, he served as university librarian and director of Falvey Memorial Library at Villanova University. He served as director of library services at Indiana University South Bend from 1978-'96. He published on the faculty status of librarians, a usage study of web-based resources and a study on cooperation between library and computer services.

Barbara J. Ford has served as the assistant commissioner in charge of the central research library at the Chicago Public Library since 1998, a library system housing in excess of nine million items. Ford earned a MLS from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, and a master's in international relations from Tufts University. She served as professor and executive director of university library services at the Virginia Commonwealth University from 1991-'98 (VCU), a system with two urban campuses. She served as president of the American Library Association (ALA) in 1997-'98. Last summer for "American Libraries," she published an article on taking care of business online. She has also published on managing library finances.

The candidate selected will replace Robert Migneault, who served as dean from 1987-2001.

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