News

Portland State University has named Helen H. Spalding its University Librarian for the Branford P. Millar Library, effective March 2005.

Spaulding will replace Thomas Pfingsten, who retired in the spring of 2004 after serving as director of the Millar Library for 24 years. Terry Rohe, professor emerita, has served as the interim University Librarian.

Since 1985, Spalding has served as the associate director of libraries at the University of Missouri–Kansas City (UMKC). Prior to that she was with Iowa State University library. Her experience at UMKC, also an urban university, will allow Spalding to step smoothly into the role of leading PSU’s Millar library—Portland’s largest academic library.

Spalding holds a B.A. in English and an M.A. in Library Science from the University of Iowa; in addition, she holds a Master of Public Administration from UMKC. She is active in the American Library Association (ALA) and the Library Administration and Management Association. Spaulding has served as the president of the Association of College and Research Libraries where she initiated the E.J. Josey Spectrum Scholar Mentor Program, annually pairing academic librarian mentors with each ALA minority scholarship student in an ALA-accredited graduate degree program.

“Great cities must have great universities, and great universities must have great libraries,” Spaulding said. “I am passionate about the impact education has in changing lives and in making the world a better place, and in the role libraries play in facilitating that education by evaluating, collecting, organizing, preserving and creating intellectual access to sources of knowledge through effective and innovative service delivery.”

As university librarian Spaulding will manage more than 80 professional and paraprofessional staff and serve as an advocate for the library both on-campus and throughout the community. In addition, she will manage the library by providing leadership in areas of library administration and operation, fostering professional growth of library personnel and promoting the role of librarians in the educational process.

Portland State’s Branford P. Millar Library supports the information, research, teaching and learning needs for over 1,800 faculty and 24,000 students at Portland State University, covering over 125 undergraduate, master's and doctoral degrees as well as graduate certificates and continuing education programs. The library has over 1.3 million volumes, and subscribes to more than 8,000 journals and 6,000 electronic journals. In addition, PSU’s library is the regional depository for federal documents and is a member of the Portals and Orbis/Cascade Alliance library consortia.

Source:
Terrel Rhodes (503-725-9015)
Office of Academic Affairs