Totten named to National Commission on Libraries and Information Science

Herman L. Totten, UNT Regents Professor of library and information sciences and faculty executive assistant to the president, was appointed by President Bush to join the National Commission on Libraries and Information Science for a five-year term.

Totten was nominated for the post Oct. 1, and the U.S. Senate confirmed the appointment Jan. 26.

The NCLIS is a permanent, independent agency of the federal government charged with advising the executive and legislative branches and other public and private organizations on national library and information policies and plans. NCLIS reports directly to both the White House and the U.S. Congress on the implementation of national library policy.

Created in 1970, it is composed of the librarian of Congress, the director of the Institute of Museum and Library Services and 14 members appointed by the president with the advice and consent of the Senate. Five members of the commission are professional librarians or information specialists, and the others have special competence in or knowledge of society's needs for library and information services. At least one of the members is knowledgeable in information technology and at least one other is knowledgeable about the library and information needs of the elderly.

Totten came to UNT in 1977 as professor and associate dean of the School of Library and Information Sciences. He left the associate deanship to return to full-time teaching in 1983 and taught 14 years before resuming his position as associate dean in 1996. In 2002, UNT President Norval Pohl selected Totten for his current position as faculty executive assistant to the president.

In addition to his academic and administrative work in SLIS, Totten is the former president of the Texas Library Association, the nation's largest state library association. During his more than 30 years as a member of TLA, he has served as both chair and member of many of its committees.

He is a life member of the American Library Association, where he has served as chair of both the ALA Committee on Accreditation and the ALA Committee on Minority Concerns. He has served two terms on the ALA Council and is a member of several ALA divisions.

Among his many awards and honors are the 2001 ALA Melvil Dewey Award, the 1999 Association for Library and Information Science Education Outstanding Teacher Award and the 1992 ALA Black Caucus Award for Outstanding Contributions to the Field of Library and Information Science Education.

"It is indeed an honor and a privilege to be nominated and confirmed as a commissioner to NCLIS," Totten says. "I am delighted for the opportunity to collaborate with my esteemed colleagues who have been selected to serve NCLIS because of their specialties including library and information science, services to the elderly and information technology. Society benefits greatly from this combined expertise."

BY RUFUS COLEMAN rcoleman@unt.edu

Other featured articles in this issue

• $1 million gift to help fund construction of new UNT athletic center
• UNT launches e-Campus web site
• UNT to host annual law conference March 1-2
• Faculty and staff can vote now for 2004 UNT Homecoming theme
• UNT students, alumna win Rotary Scholarships
• Cowboy historian to speak to Friends of the UNT Libraries
• UNT professor finds that women's civic clubs led to suffrage movement in Texas
• Familiar faces should rule at 76th Academy Awards
• Totten named to National Commission on Libraries and Information Science

homepage