ACRL College & Research Libraries News

Association of College & Research Libraries

JoAn Segal to be next executive director of ACRL

JoAn S. Segal

JoAn S. Segal, currently executive director of the Bibliographic Center for Research (BCR) in Denver, will become ACRL executive director on September 1, 1984. She succeeds Julie Carroll Virgo, who leaves ACRL on June 30 to become vice-president of the Carroll Group, a management consulting firm.

Segal has been at BCR since October 1978, first as a resource sharing program manager and later as interim executive director. She was named executive director in 1981. In that position she was in charge of operations and carried out planning activities for the Center. BCR is a regional cooperative of libraries offering products and services which help its members provide better library and information service.

After earning a B.A. degree in library service from Rutgers University, Segal went on to earn an MLS from Columbia University in 1955 and a Ph.D. in communication from the University of Colorado in 1978. The title of her Ph.D. dissertation, “Group Development in Theater Casts,” reveals her still active interest in drama.

Dr. Segal has worked in many different library settings ever since she started work as a library assistant at the New Jersey College of Agriculture Library in 1949. She has also held professional positions at the U.S. Department of Agriculture Library, Carter Products, Columbia University Teachers College, Bergen Junior College, the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, and the Institute of Mathematical Sciences.

From 1970 to 1976 she was librarian at the Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education in Boulder, Colorado, where she established a cataloging and classification system for the document collection and established a collection on grants information. While working on her Ph.D., she was a graduate teaching assistant for several communications courses at the University of Colorado and did consulting work for a health planning organization in Denver.

In 1976-1978 Segal was a consultant on the development of a handbook on terminology⁷ for classifying and describing the learning activities of adults, published by the National Center for Higher Education Management Systems in Boulder.

She has written numerous articles for such periodicals as Library Journal, Resource Sharing and Library Networks, Education Libraries, and Colorado Libraries, and has co-authored several monographs, including Western States Resource Sharing Directory (1980), a Library Manual for JJealth Planning Agencies (1978), and a Library Manual in Lifelong Learning (1978).

Last October she taught a one-credit course in networking at the University of Iowa Graduate Library School. She has also conducted microcomputer workshops and telecommunications seminars at BCR.

Segal said she was excited about coming to ACRL and “learning a new profession— association management. This extremely attractive opportunity to be active at a national level will be a challenge,” she said, “but I feel supported by the many academic librarians in the BCR region who have become my friends.”

The ACRL officers, staff, and membership extend an enthusiastic welcome to Dr. Segal.