Four candidates for the West Virginia University dean of Libraries position will be visiting campus tomorrow and next week.

The candidates include: Jon Cawthorne, associate dean for Public Services and Assessment at Florida State University; Jennifer Fabbi, associate dean of Libraries at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas; Gregory Raschke, associate director for Collections and Scholarly Communication at the North Carolina State University Libraries; and Janice Welburn, dean of Libraries at Marquette University.

“We are excited to have these four talented individuals as finalists for our dean of Libraries,” said Robert Jones, dean of the Eberly College of Arts and Sciences and chair of the search committee for the dean of Libraries. “All are uniquely qualified and have a wealth of library experience and knowledge.”

“I urge you to participate in the interview sessions and attend the open interview session planned for each candidate.”

Candidates will be meeting with University and college administrators as well as library faculty and staff at the public sessions.

• Cawthorne will visit campus Dec. 5 with an open interview session at 2:30-3:30 p.m. in the Greenbrier Room of the Mountainlair. A meet and greet session will follow from 3:30-4 p.m.

• Welburn will visit campus Dec. 11 with an open interview session at 2:30-3:30 p.m. in Room 136 at the Downtown Campus Library. A meet and greet session will follow from 3:30-4 p.m.

• Raschke will visit campus Dec. 12 with an open interview session at 2:30-3:30 p.m. in Room 104 of the Downtown Campus Library. A meet and greet session will follow from 3:30-4 p.m.

• Fabbi will visit campus Dec. 13 with an open interview session at 2:30-3:30 p.m. in Room 104 of the Downtown Campus Library. A meet and greet session will follow from 3:30-4 p.m.

Jon Cawthorne

Jon E. Cawthorne currently serves as the associate dean for Public Services and Assessment at Florida State University Libraries. In this role, he manages assessment, services and staffing in Strozier, Dirac Science and Engineering libraries and leads a writing institute for librarians and staff called, Braggin’ Writes. This summer, Cawthorne completed his Ph.D. dissertation, Viewing the Future of University Research Libraries through the Perspectives of Scenarios and is working on a guidebook for libraries on the process of scenario planning. Awarded two national Andrew Mellon Foundation grants to study new library service models (Centers of Excellence) and competencies to support digital scholarship, Cawthorne serves as co-principal investigator and will travel to Brazil, China, the United Kingdom and Japan in 2014.

He has consulted on creating underrepresented minority internships in research libraries and published articles on diversity, shared leadership and the importance of outreach. Prior to his current position, Cawthorne worked at Boston College Libraries, San Diego State, and Detroit Public Library and participated in the Association of Research Libraries’ Research Library Leaders Fellows Program, UCLA Senior Fellows and the Frye Leadership Institute. He holds a Bachelor of Arts in English and Radio Communication from Evergreen State College and Master of Library Science from the University of Maryland at College Park.

Jennifer Fabbi

Jennifer Fabbi is associate dean of Libraries at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, where she leads the Libraries’ efforts in partnering on the university’s research, education, and community engagement missions. In this role, she leads a division of 40 staff members and is responsible for all outreach to academic disciplines, educational initiatives, campus partnerships, three branch libraries, service desks, public technology, campus communications, and the public face of the campus institutional repository.

Fabbi has served in several leadership capacities in the Libraries and on campus including: head of the Curriculum Materials Library; interim director of Libraries Technical Services; special assistant to the Dean of Libraries; and two terms on the Executive Committee of the Faculty Senate. During the 2009-10 academic year, she was on reassignment to the Office of the Associate Vice Provost for Academic Affairs, concentrating on an undergraduate education reform proposal, which was subsequently approved by the Faculty Senate in fall 2011.

She continues to lead campus faculty development efforts aimed at implementing the new general education curriculum, partnering to offer faculty institutes on course design.

Fabbi has published and presented more than 80 scholarly works, and her current research is on factors impacting the information literacy of first-year college students. She earned her Master of Library Science at the University of Arizona and her Ph.D. in Higher Education Leadership at UNLV.

Greg Raschke

Greg Raschke is the associate director for Collections and Scholarly Communication at the North Carolina State University Libraries where he leads programs to build, manage, and preserve the Libraries’ extensive collections. His responsibilities include overseeing a $10 million-plus collections budget and the development of digital collections. He leads the Libraries’ partnerships in developing new and sustainable channels for scholarly communication. Raschke also administers the Friends of the Library annual giving and special programs and events. He has published and presented on diverse topics such as the future of research library collections, electronic resources and organizational change, and recruitment practices in academic libraries.

Janice Welburn

Janice S. Welburn joined Marquette University as dean of University Libraries in 2006. She previously served as associate dean of libraries at the University of Arizona, following 13 years at the University of Iowa where she worked to create the first Information Commons in a university library. She has held librarian positions at New York University, the Georgia Institute of Technology, Indiana University, and Princeton University, and served as a librarian for the Indianapolis-Marian County Public Library and at Bishop College in Dallas, where she began her professional career. Welburn earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in history at Bishop College and a Master of Arts in American history, as well as a Master of Science in library information studies, at Atlanta University.

Welburn has published and spoken extensively on diversity, leadership and human resources. She serves on the editorial board of Portal: Libraries and the Academy and has served on numerous committees of the Association of College and Research Libraries. In 2011 Welburn was selected by her peers as the association’s Academic/Research Librarian of the Year, recognizing her contributions to the profession of librarianship. She currently serves as past chair of the Catholic Research Resources Alliance Board, and as Secretary of the Center for Research Libraries.

Complete curricula vitae for the candidates can be found online: http://www.libraries.wvu.edu/about/search/schedule

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db/12/04/13

CONTACT: Debbie Brown-Ebert, Provost’s Office
304-293-2530, DLBrown@mail.wvu.edu

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