The Fourth Annual Dr. Jean E. Coleman Library Outreach Lecture Series

2003 Lecture Abstract

Tates' Biography:

Appointed to the position of Global Outreach Services Coordinator at Rutgers University Libraries (New Brunswick, N.J.) in 1999, Thelma H. Tate develops and coordinates the implementation of the Libraries' outreach services at the local, regional, national, and international levels. She provides reference and instructional services and activities that benefit the library system and the community. As a senior member of Rutgers University Library Faculty, the Coordinator assumes a leadership role in the libraries operation, assessment of services, planning, research, and personnel actions.

Prior to her appointment to this position, Tate held three other positions of leadership at Rutgers University, including Reference Librarian, Coordinator of Bibliographic Instruction in the Women's College of Rutgers-The Mabel Smith Douglass Library, and Coordinator of Reference Services in the Mabel Smith Douglass Library. Building on the early establishment of a User Education Program by Librarian Ada English in the Douglass College in the 1930s, Thelma Tate was responsible for the reestablishment of renaissance development of the Bibliographic Instruction at the college.  The results of Tate's innovative work in this area has had a lasting and ongoing impact on the development of instruction programs at the University Libraries systemwide. Prior to her work at Rutgers, Tate had served in the Chicago Public Library system and directed a kindergarten-12 grade school library.

An internationally recognized scholar in librarianship and information technology, Professor Tate has published numerous articles related to librarianship-- the latest of which was a Chapter on "African American Librarians in International Librarianship" published in the Handbook of Black Librarianship, edited by Dr. E. J. Josey and Dr. Marva Deloach, and published by Scarecrow Press, 2000.  For several years, she was the Editor of the Newsletter of the IFLA Round Table on Mobile Libraries (now Mobile Libraries Section). In addition, Tate has researched and presented numerous papers in professional conferences worldwide.

A distinguished leader, Tate has served as Vice President and President of the Round Table on Library Instruction (LIRT) of the American Library Association (ALA) and chaired many of its standing committees. Other capacities in which Tate has served within ALA include work on the Reference and Adult Services Division, the International Relations Committee Subcommittee on Africa, and the Black Caucus of ALA. For more than two decades, she has served in numerous capacities in the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA), including Secretary to the Round Table on Continuing Professional Education (Now Continuing Professional Education Section) and the Round Table on Mobile Libraries (now Mobile Libraries Section) where she served as its Chair from 1997-2001. A member of the 1999 ZIBF/ALA Free Pass Program and a frequent participant in the SCECSAL Conferences, the latest of which was 2000 in Namibia. As a result of her work as an international librarian, Tate has traveled widely throughout the United States and in more than twenty-five countries.Â