image courtesy of Legacy.com
Carlton C. Rochell Sr., who served as dean of libraries at New York University (NYU) from 1976 to 1999, died on December 23, 2018, at age 85 after a brief illness.
Under Rochell’s leadership, NYU’s library became a leading research center and an international model of applied advanced technology, where one of the nation’s first online catalogs was developed. Prior to going to NYU, he served as director of the Atlanta Public Libraries from 1968 to 1976, where he ran a successful bond referendum that financed construction of a new central library designed by Marcel Breuer. In the early 1960s, as a public librarian, Rochell fought for integration of and equal access to city libraries in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, and Anniston, Alabama.
Rochell was active in the Association of Research Libraries (ARL), serving on the Board of Directors (1987–1990) and several committees, including the Federal Relations Committee as chair (1981–1983), the Committee on the Management of Research Library Resources (1986–1988), the Task Force on Financial Strategies (1989), the Committee on Bibliographic Control (1989–1991), and the Committee on Information Policies (1991–1993). He also served as chair of the Research Libraries Group Board of Directors and as an American Library Association (ALA) councilor.
For more information about his life and career, see Carlton Rochell’s obituaries from Legacy.com and “Remembering Carlton Rochell” from Library Journal.
