Robert D. Stueart elected to ALA honorary membership
Contact: Elizabeth Dreazen
ALA Governance Office
312-280-3203
For Immediate Release
February 12, 2006
Robert D. Stueart elected to ALA honorary membership
(CHICAGO) Dr. Robert D. Stueart was elected to honorary membership in the American Library Association (ALA) in action taken by the ALA Council at the ALA 2006 Midwinter Meeting, held January 19-25, 2006, in San Antonio, Texas. Honorary membership, ALA's highest honor, is conferred in recognition of outstanding contributions of lasting importance to libraries and librarianship.
Stueart was nominated “in recognition of his accomplishments as a library educator, administrator, author, editor, researcher, international consultant, and contributor to the work of numerous library organizations on the state, national and international levels.” Over the course of a career that has spanned more than 40 years, he has had an enormous impact on the profession of librarianship both in the United States and abroad.
As dean and professor in the Graduate School of Library and Information Science at Simmons College for almost 20 years, Stueart influenced the careers of hundreds of students now working in library positions around the country and around the world.
Internationally, Stueart has made contributions to library and information management education in Eastern Europe and throughout Asia. He has been instrumental in developing programs to strengthen libraries and library education in Thailand, where he established the first Ph.D. program in information studies, and in Vietnam, where his efforts resulted in the development of library systems, services and model programs and in the education of new librarians in Vietnam. Stueart received a Fulbright Senior Scholar grant and John F. Kennedy International Scholar Award to support and develop these projects. He continues to consult internationally on library development and management.
Stueart is a prolific author of numerous books and articles in areas of library management and international librarianship. He co-authored the classic “Library and Information Center Management,” now in 7th edition preparation, which is a standard text in library schools throughout the world.
Stueart has been active throughout his career in many library organizations, including ALA, where he served on Council and the Executive Board; IFLA, where he served on the Executive Board; and the Association for Library and Information Science Education (ALISE), where he served as president and on the board of directors. He is a past president of Beta Phi Mu.
He is the recipient of numerous honors and awards, including the Melville Dewey Medal presented by ALA in 1980; the first ALISE Service Award; the 1990 Beta Phi Mu Award “for service to library education and librarianship, nationally and internationally”; and the 1995
Humphrey/OCLC/Forest Press Award for “significant contributions to international library and information science.”
Stueart will receive his honorary membership plaque in June 2006 during the opening general session of the ALA Annual Conference in New Orleans.
