Transition in the Leadership of the University Libraries

February 9, 2021

Dear Rutgers Faculty and Staff Colleagues,

President Holloway and I are pleased to share an update regarding the leadership of Rutgers Libraries. Having served as Vice President for Information Services and University Librarian since 2015, Krisellen Maloney will step down and return to the faculty as Distinguished Professor, effective May 17, 2021.  She has our gratitude for steering the Libraries through a period of significant transformation.

We are delighted that Dr. Consuella Askew has agreed to serve as Interim Vice President for University Libraries and University Librarian for a period of one year, during which we will launch a national search for this position.  At Rutgers University – Newark, Dr. Askew has led Dana Library through a strategic planning process, a multimillion-dollar renovation as well as an organizational restructuring to encourage innovation, community engagement, and operational excellence. Dr. Askew serves on the advisory committee for the Pedagogy, Professional Development, and Publicly-Engaged Scholarship (P3) Collaboratory, anchored at Dana Library. She also serves on Rutgers–Newark’s Chancellor’s Commission on Diversity and Transformation.  In her commitment to Dana Library being integral to Rutgers’ anchor institution mission, Dr. Askew developed relationships, and works closely with, the Rutgers-Newark Truth, Racial Healing, and Transformation Center (TRHT) and the Newark Public Library.

Prior to Rutgers, Dr. Askew served as the associate dean for public services at Florida International University Libraries and held leadership positions at the City University of New York where she was appointed the inaugural Chief Librarian for the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism. An active contributor to the academic library profession, Dr. Askew serves on the executive board of the Historically Black College and University Libraries Alliance and on the editorial board for the award-winning journal, portal: Libraries and the Academy. Dr. Askew has published and presented widely on library leadership, developing a culture of assessment in academic libraries, and adapting library services to meet evolving user needs.  Dr. Askew’s vision for the Rutgers University Libraries is to chart a strategic direction for the Libraries system.  Aligned with the President’s vision for the University this work will involve: centering the Libraries at the heart of our beloved community; optimizing the Libraries’ collections, personnel, and services to enrich the teaching, learning, and research processes that occur across the University; and, establishing organizational coherence across the Libraries system.

We also take this opportunity to reflect on the many transformative changes and campus-oriented reorganization that the Libraries underwent under the stewardship of Vice President Krisellen Maloney, for whose efforts we are appreciative and grateful. A noted researcher, librarian, and educator, Dr. Maloney, who was recruited from the University of Texas at San Antonio in 2015, has served her five-year term, with a year-long extension at the request of former SVPAA Barbara Lee, and will soon return to the academy.  Some of the influential outcomes and pride-points of the Libraries during Dr. Maloney’s term are the implementation of QuickSearch; Rutgers’ Open and Affordable Textbooks Program, which has saved students across the university over $5.7 million in the cost of course materials; and the university-wide adoption of ORCID identifiers. Under her leadership, Rutgers also participated in the Google Books Library Project, which will digitize and make publicly available nearly 190,000 titles from the libraries’ collections.

With this leadership transition to Dr. Askew, much of the rich work of the Libraries will continue, while elevating the excellence that each faculty and staff within this talented organization brings to bear as we serve our students and advance the academic standing of this institution.

Sincerely,

Prabhas V. Moghe
Executive Vice President & Chief Academic Officer
Distinguished Professor