Utah State University Names New Dean of Libraries

Richard W. Clement, head of the department of special collections at the Kenneth Spencer Research Library at the University of Kansas, has accepted an offer to be the Dean of Libraries at Utah State University.

In addition to his more than 20 years at the University of Kansas, Clement has held faculty and librarian positions at Illinois State University, the University of Chicago, the University of Alabama and Emporia State University. His position at USU begins July 1, 2008.

 

Raymond T. Coward, executive vice president and provost at USU, said the university is delighted that Clement will join the USU executive administrative team. He said Clement will provide superior leadership to library services both in Logan and at the university’s regional campuses.

 

“Professor Clement emerged from a very strong pool of qualified candidates from across the United States,” Coward said. “His impressive record of scholarship combined with his proven record of academic leadership set him apart from others.”

 

Clement said he is excited at the prospect of leading the USU libraries at a time when the university and its libraries are receiving much well-deserved national praise.

 

“The Merrill-Cazier Library is nationally recognized as one of the most technologically advanced libraries in the nation, but as I have discovered, it is the remarkably talented staff who make it all work,” Clement said. “I greatly look forward to working with such a gifted group of people to develop the kinds of resources our users will need in this evolving digital future.”

 

Clement will oversee library services both in Logan and across all the regional campuses and centers. He said he is thrilled to work with Provost Coward and the other deans to fulfill the university’s vision and to help chart the future course for USU.

 

“I have a sense of real movement at USU,” he said. “USU is obviously a place where things are happening, and I am so pleased to be a part of that.”

 

Clement completed his undergraduate degree in history at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, and a master’s degree in English at the same institution. He earned a second master’s degree in library science from the University of Chicago. He was a Fulbright Educational Partnership Fellow in Peru in 2004 and received the Gretchen and Gene A. Budig Distinguished Librarian Award from the University of Kansas in 2003.

 

USU President Stan L. Albrecht said the university is pleased to have recruited someone of Clement’s caliber for one of the university’s key administrative positions.

 

“Professor Clement will add a renowned voice to an already extraordinary leadership team here now,” Albrecht said. “He has had a distinguished career at a number of prestigious institutions, and we are pleased he will join us at Utah State.”

 

Clement’s wife, Susanne, has accepted the position of director of the Quinney Library in USU’s College of Natural Resources. She has earned bachelor of science and master of arts degrees in history from Illinois State University and a master of library science from Emporia State University. She has more than 20 years of experience in private, public and university libraries and has served as head of Collection Development at the University of Kansas Libraries since 2004. She also begins July 1.

 

“We are extremely fortunate to have someone of Susanne Clement’s caliber joining our college,” said Nat Frazer, dean of the College of Natural Resources. “She’s just the person we need to make the Quinney Library more valuable to natural resources professionals throughout Utah, the Intermountain West and arid montaine ecosystems across the globe.”

 

Richard Clement is the author of seven books and more than 40 scholarly articles. His most recent book, Books on the Frontier: Print Culture in the American West, 1768-1875, was published in 2003 by University Press of New England and the Library of Congress. He is the founding president of the Mediterranean Studies Association and is co-editor of the journal Mediterranean Studies published by Manchester University Press.