CU Boulder Provost Russell Moore has named Robert H. McDonald as dean of University Libraries. McDonald, who currently serves as associate dean for research and technology strategies and librarian at Indiana University, will assume the post on Aug. 1, 2018.
Robert H. McDonald
“I want to welcome Robert to CU Boulder,” said Moore. “He will bring new ideas and sensibilities to the vital work in research, information storage, dissemination and archiving done by our outstanding network of libraries. I look forward to his working with our exceptionally talented University Libraries faculty and staff in creating new ways for our campus community to succeed.”
As the associate dean for research and technology strategies at IU, McDonald led the work of providing library information system and discovery services to the entire IU system. He managed projects related to scholarly communications, new model publishing and technologies that enabled IU’s libraries to support teaching and learning for the IU Bloomington campus.
At IU, he also served as deputy director of the Data to Insight Center, where he conducted research in areas of large data analysis and digital storage and preservation through grant-funded and collaborative projects, such as the HathiTrust Research Center. He also served as the data steward for the IU Libraries.
His research interests include technology management and integration of lean and agile frameworks, data preservation, learning ecosystems, data cyberinfrastructure and big data analytics.
“I have long admired the University of Colorado Boulder’s reputation for original thinking and innovative research. I am honored by this appointment and grateful to have the opportunity to join the wonderful CU community of faculty, staff and students,” said McDonald. “I look forward to working alongside the talented library faculty and staff to build on a legacy of excellence in research libraries.”
McDonald earned his master of library and information science degree at the University of South Carolina and holds a master of music degree from the University of Georgia.
He succeeds James “Jim” Williams, who served as dean of libraries from 1988 to 2017. The post has been held on an interim basis by Leslie Reynolds since June 2017.
“Leslie has been an incredible asset to the libraries and to my leadership team, and I appreciate all she has done and will do for our university. I also wish to thank the dean of libraries search committee chair Terri Fiez, members of the search committee and our dedicated library staff for their help and guidance in this search,” said Moore.
Gary Price (gprice@gmail.com) is a librarian, writer, consultant, and frequent conference speaker based in the Washington D.C. metro area.
He earned his MLIS degree from Wayne State University in Detroit.
Price has won several awards including the SLA Innovations in Technology Award and Alumnus of the Year from the Wayne St. University Library and Information Science Program. From 2006-2009 he was Director of Online Information Services at Ask.com. Gary is also the co-founder of infoDJ an innovation research consultancy supporting corporate product and business model teams with just-in-time fact and insight finding.
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