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William Crowe
David Kaser

Mark your calendars!

William Crowe received his Ph.D. in Library and Information Science from Indiana University in 1986. His dissertation title was "Verner W. Clapp as Opinion Leader and Change Agent in the Preservation of Library Materials." He was honored in 2004 with the SLIS Distinguished Alumni Award.

His talk for the David Kaser Lecture will include reflections on The Future of the Research Library, the 1963 Phineas Windsor lecture at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, delivered by Verner W. Clapp. The lecture was published by the U of I Press in 1964 and is held in more than 500 collections.

Biographical Notes:
William Crowe became Special Assistant to the Dean of Libraries at the University of Kansas (KU) in July 2007, as he moved into "phased retirement." He had been Spencer Librarian at KU from July 1999, responsible for the university's rare books, manuscripts, regional history and archival collections and services in the Kenneth Spencer Research Library. He had been KU's Vice Chancellor for Information Services from 1996 to 1999. He had taken on that responsibility in addition to his role as Dean of Libraries, to which position he had been named in mid-1990.

Bill is a Bostonian by birth and education and earned his master's degree in library service at Rutgers University, in 1969. After two years work in technical services at the Boston Public Library, Bill's interest in the academic world took him to the Indiana University Libraries, Bloomington, where he coordinated acquisitions and cataloging for IU's then six regional campuses.

In 1976, he accepted a year's special internship with the director of the library at the University of Michigan, after which he returned to Indiana, where he served half-time as assistant to the dean of libraries while pursuing coursework for his doctorate. He was awarded the Ph.D. in Library and Information Science from Indiana University in 1986; his area of research interest is library history, in particular studying the work of library leaders to bring about change.

In 1979, Bill moved to The Ohio State University, where he was assistant to the director and then assistant director of libraries for administration and technical services, before leaving for Kansas.

Bill counts himself a Kansan not only because of his work at the University of Kansas, but also by marriage. He married the late Nancy Sanders, KU'67, a fifth generation native of Douglas County (of which Lawrence is the county seat), during their doctoral studies at Indiana. Bill still lives on the 160-acre farm in southwest Douglas County that Nancy's forebears settled a century ago. Their daughter, Kate, completed her undergraduate degree at KU in 2004 as a third generation Jayhawk, and her Master's Degree in Library Science at Emporia State University in 2007. Kate is now a librarian-archivist at the University of Denver.

The David Kaser Lecture Series is sponsored by the School of Library and Information Science, in coordination with the Lilly Library. Joel Silver, the Curator of Books for the Lilly Library is also the Director of the SLIS Specialization in Rare Books and Manuscripts Librarianship. The Lecture Series is named in honor of David Kaser, Distinguished Professor Emeritus, who studied, wrote, and taught extensively in the areas of library history, library buildings, and printing. Professor Kaser retired in 1991 after 18 years at SLIS. He is the author of several books including: Just Lucky I Guess, My Adventurous Life as a Hoosier Librarian (2000), and The Evolution of the American Academic Library Building (1997). Kaser had an active library consulting career, and worked in design advising roles in over two hundred libraries all over the world. He plans to attend the lecture on April 3rd.

Posted March 05, 2008