IRRT Notable Member

Clara M. Chu

IRRT member since: 2015

Dr. Clara M. Chu is Director of the Mortenson Center for International Library Programs and Mortenson Distinguished Professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She is a leading voice in international and multicultural library and information education, research and practice. Dr. Chu publishes, presents and consults worldwide in English and Spanish on library and information science (LIS) education, diversity, equity and inclusion in LIS, strategic planning, research methods, marketing and promotion of libraries, library trends, and emerging technologies among other topics. She is active in LIS associations and is Past-President of ASIS&T and ALISE. She was an American Library Association (ALA) representative on the U.S. National Commission for UNESCO, and Past-Chair of the ALA Serving Refugees, Immigrants and Displaced Persons Sub-Committee. She has broad editorial experience and has served on the boards of Libri, Library Trends and International Journal of Information, Diversity, & Inclusion, and was coeditor-in-chief of Library Trends, and inaugural co-editor of the "International Insights" Column of College & Research Libraries News. Dr. Chu is the recipient of numerous honors and awards in research, education and professional contributions, including the 2018 American Library Association (ALA) Beta Phi Mu Award for distinguished service to education for librarianship, the ALA 2008 Library Diversity Research Honor and its 2002 Equality Award. Prior to joining Illinois, she held the positions of Chair and Professor at the Department of Library and Information Studies in The University of North Carolina at Greensboro (2009-15), and before that she was a faculty member at the Department of Information Studies in the University of California at Los Angeles.