The Association of Research Libraries (ARL) elected its 2020–2021 Board of Directors on October 6 during the Fall 2020 Association Meeting. At the end of the meeting on October 7, John Culshaw, the Jack B. King University Librarian at The University of Iowa, began a one-year term as president of ARL.
“It is an honor to begin my term as ARL president,” said Culshaw. “Research libraries and their home institutions face extraordinary challenges today. I look forward to leading the Board and the ARL membership on implementing our recently adopted 2021–2022 Action Plan. Research libraries are key partners in the broad research and learning enterprise and ARL brings us together, especially in our commitments to inclusivity, enduring social justice, and anti-racism.”
Culshaw succeeds Lorraine Haricombe, vice provost and director of libraries at The University of Texas at Austin, as ARL president. Haricombe continues to serve as a member of both the Board of Directors and the Executive Committee as past president through the Association’s next Fall Meeting, ending October 6, 2021.
During the meeting this week, the Association’s membership ratified the Board’s election of K. Matthew Dames, university librarian, Boston University, as ARL vice president/president-elect for a one-year term. Dames will become ARL president on October 6, 2021.
Three new Board members were elected by the membership to serve three-year terms (2020–2023): Trevor A. Dawes, vice provost for libraries and museums and May Morris University Librarian, University of Delaware; Robert McDonald, dean of university libraries and senior vice provost of online education, University of Colorado Boulder; and Susan Parker, university librarian, The University of British Columbia. Additionally, two new Board members were elected to serve one-year terms (2020–2021): Virginia Steel, Norman and Armena Powell University Librarian, UCLA, and Tyler Walters, dean of university libraries, Virginia Tech.
Continuing elected members of the Board are: Robert E. Fox Jr. (2018–2021), dean of university libraries, University of Louisville; Joseph Lucia (2019–2022), dean of libraries, Temple University; and Sarah Pritchard (2019–2022), dean of libraries and the Charles Deering McCormick University Librarian, Northwestern University.
Also continuing to serve on the Board and Executive Committee are Diane Parr Walker (2016–2021), the Edward H. Arnold University Librarian at the University of Notre Dame, in her role as ARL treasurer, and Mary Lee Kennedy (2018– ), ARL executive director, in an ex officio, non-voting capacity.
The Board of Directors is the governing body of the Association and represents the interests of ARL member libraries in directing the business of the Association, including establishing operating policies, budgets, and fiscal control; modifying the ARL mission and objectives; and representing the Association to the community.
View photo rosters of the ARL Executive Committee and Board of Directors.
About the Association of Research Libraries
The Association of Research Libraries (ARL) is a nonprofit organization of 124 research libraries in Canada and the US whose mission is to advance research, learning, and scholarly communication. The Association fosters the open exchange of ideas and expertise; advances diversity, equity, and inclusion; and pursues advocacy and public policy efforts that reflect the values of the library, scholarly, and higher education communities. ARL forges partnerships and catalyzes the collective efforts of research libraries to enable knowledge creation and to achieve enduring and barrier-free access to information. ARL is on the web at ARL.org.
