SIUE Appoints Lovejoy Library Collections and Information Specialist Marlee Graser as Dean

SIUE Appoints Lovejoy Library Collections and Information Specialist Marlee Graser as Dean

July 17, 2024, 1:30 PM

On July 1, Southern Illinois University Edwardsville appointed Marlee Graser, Master of Science in Library and Information Science, to Dean of Library and Information Services. Graser has worked as an instructor with the award-winning Eugene B. Redmond Collection and Learning Center, a tenure-track associate professor, a metadata librarian, and, since June 2022, has served as the library's Interim Associate Dean. Graser's dissertation focus for her PhD in Information Science (anticipated 2027) at the State University of New York at Buffalo covers the intersections of human information behavior, management theory, and critical theories on management and information behaviors in organizations.

"I want to extend my appreciation to the search committee for their efforts to secure an outstanding leader for LIS. Dean Graser is a thoughtful leader and strategic problem solver," said Denise Cobb, PhD, Provost and Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs. "Lovejoy Library is central to our academic success whether in teaching, learning, research, and discovery. LIS can play an even greater role in student belonging and success while enhancing academic excellence. The faculty and staff are poised for change and to pursue new goals. I look forward to working with Dean Graser to advance our academic mission."

"The best Library is the library that best supports its users' needs and those user bases are different," said Graser. "It's about making the library more than just a repository of books of knowledge. We're moving more towards information literacy education, building dynamic programming that helps people feel like they belong on this campus, programming that supports the student academic experience and to really build ourselves as an intellectual hub that inspires curiosity and fosters discovery, hopefully emancipatory discovery, that really is about freedom of thought, lifelong learning."

Graser began her SIUE career in 2012. She has served in multiple roles in LIS and contributed to success across departments and areas within the Library.

"I had already worked in a public library and in a special library, and so I wanted to see if academic libraries were a good fit as well. And I fell in love with it," said Graser. "I fell in love with academic libraries because you are helping students at a very transformational chapter in their life."

Graser earned a Master of Science in library and information science ('14) from University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, with a Certificate in Archives and Special Collections. She received a Bachelor of Arts in history with a minor in philosophy ('09) from Illinois College, Jacksonville, IL. Upon completing her bachelor's and her senior assignment in modern Irish history, Graser moved to Northern Ireland for an immersive experience in order to explore the country's history and its relationship with decolonization.

Throughout her career, Graser points to transformative leadership as having an impact on how employees feel about their work, which leads to a greater connection to student success. For instance, course modules in information literacy, which are embedded in the English 102 program, as evidence of a successful organizational model when it comes to faculty at Lovejoy partnering in curriculum.

"We do instruction sessions with English 102 courses that help students develop critical literacies related to information, teaching them that information has value and that scholarship is a conversation," said Graser. "There are power structures at play in the systems we use to search for and discover information. The library plays an integral role in teaching students to navigate the information world around them and encouraging lifelong learning."

As Dean, Graser expects to confront the challenges most libraries now face concerning budgets, the growing digital divide, upgrades to library facilities and staffing. She wants to help guide Lovejoy, which used to be a collections-focused library, to now balancing efforts between providing resources, embedding information literacy in the curriculum, and supporting student academic success.

"If we're doing those things and supporting student success by being the intellectual heart of the campus and creating a space of belonging for students--building a home for them-that is how we know we are successful."

PHOTO: Marlee Graser, MLIS, Dean of Library and Information Services