WWU’s library director receives Missouri Library Association award

10/31/2011 Mary Ann Beahon
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE (573) 592-1127

 

Erlene Dudley, associate professor and library director at William Woods University, has received an award from the Missouri Library Association (MLA) in recognition of her accomplishments.

The award was presented Oct. 6 at the MLA awards banquet in Kansas City, Mo.
 
The Ronald G. Bohley Award is presented by MLA and the Missouri Library Network Corporation (MLNC) to an individual or individuals whose actions have led libraries to work better together and who exemplifies the best efforts to reach out beyond his or her own institution to promote cooperative activities among libraries.
 
Dudley is active in MOBIUS, a statewide organization whose members collaborate to provide quality information resources and services to the people of Missouri.
 
 “I was president of the MOBIUS Board of Directors and did much of the heavy lifting to incorporate MOBIUS as a nonprofit corporation in Missouri with tax-exempt status with the IRS,” she said. “I also developed a new assessment model to establish MOBIUS on a firm financial basis and helped rewrite bylaws and policies.”
 
Dudley has served on the MOBIUS Board three times over the last 12 years.
 
“From the beginning I saw MOBIUS as a way to provide WWU students, both in the on-campus undergraduate program and in the Graduate College, with information resources equivalent in size to that of a very large research library,” Dudley said. “No other way would WWU students have access to 24 million books, journals and other library materials.”
                                                           
Dudley received her bachelor’s degree in elementary and remedial education from the University of Buffalo and her master’s degree in library and information science from the University of Washington. She has been an associate professor and library director at WWU since 1993.
 
She has been on the MLNC’s board of directors, an instructor for the Missouri State Library, and an adjunct faculty member at the University of Missouri-Columbia.
 
“Not only do libraries provide the means for lifelong learning, they also nourish creativity, open minds, level the playing field, value the individual and preserve the past.  What a deal!” said Dudley.