The University Libraries will host a “conversation” on the future of research libraries on Monday, October 10. The Libraries’ guests will be the directors of two graduate programs in library and information science, Sandy Yee and Diane Kelly. Dean of Libraries Steve Smith will moderate the event. The campus community is invited to join the conversation in 605 Hodges Library, 10-11:30 a.m. A small reception will follow the conversation.
 
Yee is dean of libraries and director of the School of Library and Information Science at Wayne State University. Kelly is the new director of the School of Information Sciences at UT Knoxville.
 
Before assuming her current leadership role at Wayne State, Yee held a variety of leadership positions elsewhere, including Eastern Michigan University, where among many other accomplishments she raised more than $40 million for the construction of the Bruce T. Halle Library. She has been a leader in the profession both nationally and internationally, holding numerous appointed and elected positions in ALA, ACRL, ARL, the Michigan Library Association, and the Friends of the Detroit Public Library. In 2008, she was elected to the board of OCLC. Yee earned her doctorate from the University of Michigan and her MLS and BA from Western Michigan University.
 
Before joining the faculty at UT, Kelly was professor of Information Science at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. An expert in user evaluation of information systems, Kelly has been active in many professional and scholarly organizations, including the Association of Computing Machinery and the Association of Information Science and Technology. Her research and service have been recognized with numerous awards, including the Karen Spärck Jones Award from the British Computer Society, the Research Award from ASIS&T, and the Outstanding Teacher Award from UNC. She earned her doctorate and her MLS at Rutgers University and her BA from the University of Alabama.
 
The program is part of the “Dean’s Leadership Series,” which brings library leaders to campus about once a semester for a conversation on research libraries or related topics. The conversation format is intended to encourage more engagement than a presentation style allows. The program will start with a few general questions for our guests, and then we will invite the audience to join in for an engaging exchange around the broad but critical topic of the future of research libraries. 
 
All are invited to attend and participate in this event.