Mary Strife Named Evansdale Library Director

     WVU Libraries Dean Frances O'Brien recently named Mary Strife director of Evansdale Library.

     In announcing her selection, Dean O'Brien praised Strife for being an innovative and energetic individual with a great sense of service to library users.

     "Mary will make sure that the Evansdale Library is an asset to learning and research," O'Brien said. "She will have an important leadership role in planning and implementing the collections and services needed to ensure support for faculty and student academic responsibilities."

     Strife, who has been serving in the position on an interim basis since August 2001, is enthusiastic about her role within WVU Libraries and the possibilities on the horizon.

     "I'm very excited about the Evansdale Library. There's a lot of untapped potential out here, both faculty and staff," Strife said.

     She wants a main focus at Evansdale to be on strengthening its relationship with academic departments and students.

     "We want to provide them with better services and more services," Strife said. "We will work to get them what they need and let them know that's what why we're here."

The Evansdale Library maintains collections for departments located on the Evansdale Campus: the College of Engineering, the Davis College of Agriculture, Forestry and Consumer Sciences, Human Resources and Education, and the College of Creative Arts.      Strife came to WVU with a background in the sciences.      Earning her bachelors degree in biology from the State University of New York at Potsdam in 1981, she had planned to pursue her masters in genetics but instead headed the University of Buffalo to obtain her masters in library science in 1982. At Buffalo, she gained experience as a graduate assistant working in the science and engineering library.

Evansdale Library Director Mary Strife.

     Her first job as a librarian was at Cornell University. She then worked at the University of Rochester and SUNY Institute of Technology before coming to WVU in 1995 as head and coordinator of the physical sciences and mathematics libraries.

     In July 2000, she moved to the Evansdale Library to serve as head of access services. She held that post until being named interim head of the library.

     Evansdale is unique for her because it serves a mix of disciplines rather than being dedicated fully to the sciences.

     Still, Strife has grown comfortable to switching thinking from superconductors to Mozart to Henry Miller all in a five-minute span.

     "If you're a reference librarian, you get different kinds of questions everyday. The subject matter doesn't matter," Strife said. "Plus we have some excellent librarians. If I don't know something, I can find someone who does. That's the whole point of reference work."

     For more information about Evansdale Library, go to the website: http://www.libraries.wvu.edu/evansdale/

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