Larry Alford Named as Chief Librarian of University of Toronto Libraries

Larry Alford has been named as the Chief Librarian of the University of Toronto Libraries.

Here's an excerpt from the press release:

Larry Alford, vice-provost for libraries, university librarian and dean of university libraries at Temple University in Philadelphia had been named to succeed Chief Librarian Carol Moore. He will take up his post no later than Aug. 1; the appointment ends June 30, 2018.

Alford has a long and distinguished library career. Prior to joining Temple in 2005, he spent 30 years with his alma mater, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. While at North Carolina, he served in a variety of positions, including deputy university librarian and interim university librarian.

At Temple, he was responsible for a library system that includes the five libraries of the Paley library system, the Ginsburg Health Sciences Library, and the Podiatric Medicine Library and also for the Temple University Press which publishes approximately 60 scholarly monographs per year. During his tenure there, he has led a transformation of the Temple library system.

His engagement in numerous library operations, including the development of print and electronic collections, library services, and the renovation and building of libraries, has resulted in a superb vision for research libraries in the 21st Century. Alford has a lengthy and successful record of leadership in co-operative activities among libraries, first in North Carolina and then nationally and globally, culminating in his chairing for the last four years the board of trustees of OCLC (Online Computer Library Center), a global library cooperative that serves 72,000 libraries. . . .

He earned both his bachelor’s degree and his MLS at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and he received the Distinguished Alumnus Award from the School of Information and Library Science in May 2005.

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