Karen Munro elected ACRL vice-president/president-elect

For Immediate Release
Thu, 04/12/2018

Contact:

Mary Ellen Davis

Executive Director

ACRL

mdavis@ala.org

CHICAGO - Karen Munro, associate dean of libraries, learning, and research services at Simon Fraser University, has been elected ACRL vice-president/president-elect. She will become president-elect following the 2018 ALA Annual Conference in New Orleans and assume the presidency in July 2019 for a one-year term.

Faye A. Chadwell, Donald and Delpha Campbell University Librarian and Oregon State University Press director at the Oregon State University Libraries and Press; and April D. Cunningham, instruction and information literacy librarian at Palomar College, have been elected to the ACRL Board of Directors as director-at-large.

An amendment updating the ACRL bylaws to ensure they were consistent with effective practices especially around nominations, appointments, and virtual meetings, along with other minor updates, was also approved.

“I am honored and excited to follow in the footsteps of all those who have served as leaders of ACRL,” Munro said. “ACRL has been my professional home for sixteen years, and I expect the next three years to be particularly challenging, interesting, and potent as I learn about and contribute to the work happening at all levels of the association. I want to express my deep gratitude to everyone who made this an enjoyable and illuminating candidacy process, and I look forward to serving the association in this new role.”

Munro’s service to ACRL includes serving as chair of the ACRL Sections Council (2008–09), as ex-officio member of the ACRL Research Coordinating Committee (2008–09), and as cochair of the ACRL Conference Planning Green Component Committee (2007–09).

“I am delighted to welcome Karen Munro to the ACRL Board of Directors,” said ACRL Executive Director Mary Ellen K. Davis. “Karen brings to the Board a broad engagement across ACRL and a variety of experiences with state and regional associations. Her interests in teaching and learning, meeting users at their point of need, and sustainability will be a great asset to the Board and ACRL as a whole.”

Within ACRL sections Munro has served as chair of the ACRL Instruction Section (IS) Nominating Committee (2014–16), as a member of the IS Advisory Council (2013–16), as IS member-at-large (2013–15), as chair of the IS Conference Program Planning Committee (2010–12), and as an intern for and as chair of the IS Research and Scholarship Committee (2006–07, 2007–08). She served as secretary, vice-chair, chair, and past-chair of the Literatures in English Section (LES) from 2006–07, 2007–10; as initiator, chair, and as a member of the LES New Members Discussion Group (2004–08); and as a member of and as chair of the LES Section Planning Committee (2003–05). She was also a member of the ACRL Western European Studies Section (WESS) Research and Planning Committee (2003–05) and a member of the WESS 2005 Conference Program Planning Committee (2004–05).

Her work with state, regional, and other national associations includes serving as a member and cochair of the Online Northwest Conference Planning Committee (2010–14, 2014–17), as member-at-large of the Information Literacy Advisory Group of Oregon (2012–14), as the Oregon University System representative on the ACRL-Oregon Board (2011–13), as the Librarians’ Association of the University of California (UC) representative on the UC Heads of Public Service Information Literacy Common Interest Group (2006–07), and as a member of the UC-Berkeley Librarians’ Association of “Academic Library 2.0” Conference Committee (2006-–07).

Munro received the University of Oregon Libraries Solari Incentive Award (2014). She additionally received a UC-Berkeley Townsend Center for the Humanities Fellowship (2007); a UC-Berkeley Mellon Library/Faculty Fellowship on Undergraduate Research (2006); the University of British Columbia/British Columbia Library Association, Neal Harlow Prize (2002); a University of British Columbia Graduate Fellowship (2001); a North American Serials Interest Group Student Grant Award (2001); and a Canadian Library Association, HW Wilson Scholarship (2000).

Her publications include “Tactical Urbanism for Librarians” (ALA Editions, 2017); “Energy Efficiency in the LMS: Faculty Evaluations of a Sustainable Embedded Model,” coauthored by Amy Hofer for “Virtually Embedded: Case Studies of Online Embedded Librarianship” (ACRL 2013); and “Research for Design: Exploring Student and Instructor Attitudes Toward Accessing Library Resources and Services from Course Management Systems,” coauthored by Merinda McLure, for Communications in Information Literacy (2010).

Munro earned her MLIS from the University of British Columbia, an MFA in writing from the University of Iowa, and her BA in English Literature from McGill University.

For full ACRL election results, visit the association website.

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The Association of College & Research Libraries (ACRL) is the higher education association for librarians. Representing nearly 10,500 academic and research librarians and interested individuals, ACRL (a division of the American Library Association) develops programs, products, and services to help academic and research librarians learn, innovate, and lead within the academic community. Founded in 1940, ACRL is committed to advancing learning and transforming scholarship. ACRL is on the web at acrl.org, Facebook at facebook.com/ala.acrl and Twitter at @ala_acrl.