About the commencement speaker

Herman L. Totten, Regents Professor and associate dean of the UNT School of Library and Information Sciences, has been a member of the university's faculty since 1977.

Totten is nationally acknowledged as one of the leading educators in his field. This year he received the Melvil Dewey Medal from the American Library Association, and he is a former recipient of the Award for Teaching Excellence, given by the Association for Library and Information Science Education.

During Totten's time as associate dean, the School of Library and Information Sciences has expanded its distributed learning program into one of the most comprehensive in the nation, offering hundreds of courses via the Internet and two-way video conferencing. Totten played a key role in establishing the program, and he taught the first online library science management course in the country.

Prior to coming to UNT, he served as dean of the library school at the University of Oregon from 1974 to 1977 and was associate dean of the library school at the University of Kentucky from 1971 to 1974. Before his years at Kentucky, he was a professor and director of the library at Wiley College in Marshall.

Totten created the curriculum for the Texas Small Library Management Program, which trains and certifies county librarians. Currently, his research is focused on improving information access for county librarians.

He has conducted workshops for many library systems throughout Texas and in Arkansas, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma and Oregon.

Totten has chaired ALA committees on accreditation and minority concerns, and he is the president of the Texas Library Association, the nation's largest state library association. He has been a TLA member for 29 years.

The author or co-author of more than 40 scholarly books and articles, Totten holds master's and doctoral degrees in library science from the University of Oklahoma. He earned his bachelor of music degree from Wiley College.

BY RUFUS COLEMAN rcoleman@unt.edu

Other featured articles in this issue

• UNT funds faculty, staff raises without departmental budget cuts
• Commencement set Aug. 11
• KWRD FM to broadcast UNT football, basketball
• UNT offers gifted education staff day
• Putting first aid first: Now is the time to restock kits
• School supply drive under way
• UNT police train officers in Mexico
• UNT survey asks teens why so many shoplift
• Sunday Fun Day and Howdy Week kick off school year

homepage