Colleen Cook Elected to ARL Board

Colleen Cook, Dean of the Texas A&M University Libraries and holder of the Sterling C. Evans Endowed Chair in Librarianship, was elected to the Association of Research Libraries (ARL) Board, during their October 17, 2008 meeting. Other new Board members elected to serve three-year terms were James Mullins, Dean of Libraries, Purdue University and Sandra G. Yee, Dean, University Library System, Wayne State University.

Cook helped develop and promote LibQUAL+®, the premier assessment tool for measuring library service quality internationally. She served as co-principal investigator (with Fred Heath, Duane Webster, and Martha Kyrillidou) of a grant for the initial LibQUAL+® project supported by the Fund for the Improvement of Post-Secondary Education (FIPSE) and managed by the Association of Research Libraries (ARL) and Texas A&M University. A recipient of many awards including the Distinguished Librarianship Award from Texas A&M’s Association of Former Students, Cook chairs committees on the campus and in national organizations which focus on educational environment and library service assessment. She makes frequent presentations at national and international library and information conferences on library assessment, particularly LibQUAL+®, and service issues in ARL libraries.  She has published extensively on library management and information service issues.

The ARL Board governs the Association, sets policy, and represents the interest of  member libraries by  defining strategic directions and representing ARL to the community.  The Association of Research Libraries  is a nonprofit organization of 123 research libraries in North America. Its mission is to influence the changing environment of scholarly communication and the public policies that affect research libraries and the diverse communities they serve.