When offered the job, "I didn't think about it a minute," she said in an interview. "I am so impressed with what I've seen and everyone I've met, and I'm very excited about this." Brennan completed reference checks, conferred with President Robert Caret and phoned Nolan with the job offer last week.
"The breadth of her experience and her almost universally-acclaimed interpersonal skills, which impressed everyone, contributed to the judgment that she was the best fit for Towson at this time," he said.
The library Nolan is coming from is distinctly different than the one to which she is coming. The Z. Smith Reynolds Library has a bigger facility, a more expansive collection, a larger budget and a different staffing arrangement. Wake Forest is a private liberal arts institution.
But Nolan said she sees similarities in the "real dedication to the students and faculty" and in the "outreach to the community."
"I want to be leading a library at an institution that is very student-oriented, that is diverse, that is energetic and ready for changes. I see that at Towson," she said.
She praised Caret's Towson 2010 plan and called the University "very student-centered."
Honors College Dean Maria Fracasso led the University librarian search committee. The committee narrowed the applicant pool to three and brought the candidates to campus last month.
Nolan has served as associate director at Wake Forest since 1997, but she has spent time in Maryland before.
She was the college director for educational support services at Montgomery College in Rockville before moving to Wake Forest.
She was also the director of the metropolitan campus learning resources center at Buyahoga Community College.
Nolan is coming to Towson at a time when the role of a library on a college campus is changing due to technological advances. Last summer, external consultants praised Cook Library's strengths, "especially the committed staff," Brennan said.
"The consultants helped us formulate a vision for the Library as the "learning hub" of the campus, both as a physical space as well as an electronically accessible resource for students and faculty," he said.
"Certainly, the upgrading of the physical space, now underway, is part of that vision. The library needs to be central to the metropolitan definition of Towson and at the same time, become a resource for students as they navigate the world of information."
Nolan said she'd love to see the renovations of the third floor replicated throughout the entire library.
"Make it airy and open and light-filled with lots of computers everywhere for the students," she said.
The announcement concludes two of the three dean searches conducted this school year.
A new dean of the College of Business and Economics may be named in the coming weeks.
|
|
|
| Home | Copyright Brian Stelter |