PRESENTERS: Biographical Information


Larry Hardesty, Interim University Librarian, Winona State University
. Hardesty’s interests include information literacy and the role of the library in undergraduate education. He served as Dean of the Library at the University of Nebraska at Kearney and as Library Director at Austin College and Eckerd College. Past president of ACRL, he was the 2002 Academic/Research Librarian of the Year and 2003 Chair of the ACRL National Conference. He has published Faculty and the Library:  The Undergraduate Experience (1991); Books, Bytes, and Bridges:  Libraries and Computer Centers in Academic Institutions  (2000); and The Role of the Library in the First College Year (2007).    

Thomas G. Kirk, Library Director and Coordinator of Information Services, Earlham College. Kirk is interested in information literacy, organizational effectiveness, and the role of electronic resources in undergraduate education. He has served as consultant or program reviewer for 40 colleges and universities as well as organizations devoted to higher education. Also a past president of ACRL, Kirk was 2004 Academic/Research Librarian of the Year; Earlham College won the 2001 Excellence in Academic Libraries Award under his leadership. Kirk is former Library Director at Berea College and the University of Wisconsin, Parkside. His books include Increasing the Teaching Role of Academic Libraries (1984) and Academic Libraries:  Achieving Excellence in Higher Education (1992).

Evelyn Curry, Assistant Professor of Library & Information Studies, Texas Women’s University. Professor Curry specializes in information theory, patron-librarian interaction, and multicultural librarianship. Her essays have appeared in Journal of Theory Construction and Testing and Library Trends; she also edited Technological Advances in Reference:  A Paradigm Shift?  (2001). Curry is a former professor in the School of Library & Information Studies at the University of Oklahoma and public services librarian at the University of Northern Iowa. She was a Fulbright Senior Scholar at Moi Unviersity in Kenya and at the National University of Science and Technology in Zimbabwe.

Julie Todaro, Dean of Library Services, Austin Community College.  Dean Todaro’s interests include staff development and the future of customer service, organizational effectiveness, and the integration of learning and work. She is Dean of Faculty Development and Learning Resource Services for the Rio Grande Campus and extension sites of Austin Community College. She is Adjunct Professor in the Information School at the University of Texas and a former professor in the School of Information and Library Studies at the University of Michigan. Currently President of ACRL, she is past President of the Texas Library Association and winner of the TLA Librarian of the Year Award (1996). She has published Staffing Issues for the Year 2000: Managing and Working in the Libraries of the Future (1997) and Training Staff and Volunteers to Provide Extraordinary Customer Service (2006).

Mark Tucker, Dean of Library & Information Resources, Abilene Christian University.  Tucker specializes in the history of academic libraries and higher education and in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and the role of library resources in graduate and undergraduate research. He is Professor Emeritus of Library Science and former Humanities, Social Science & Education Librarian, Purdue University. His publications include Untold Stories: Civil Rights, Libraries, and Black Librarianship (1998) and Libraries & Culture:  Historical Essays Honoring the Legacy of Donald G. Davis, Jr. (2006).