Sohair Wastawy Named Dean of Libraries at Illinois State

Illinois State University Vice President and Provost Sheri Noren Everts has named Sohair F. Wastawy as the new dean of University Libraries effective June 1, 2010.

"I look forward to leading Illinois State University libraries and to engage with its faculty and staff in creating innovative and emergent services for the ever changing information environment," Wastawy said. "I'm also happy to be returning home to Illinois where I worked for 17 years."

Milner Library supports Illinois State's academic programs with a staff of 90, an institutional budget of approximately $8.5 million and a collection of over 1.6 million volumes.

As new dean, Wastawy will be responsible for library-wide strategic planning and policy direction in the areas of collection development, public and technical services, facilities planning, and personnel policies; will assume a University-wide leadership role in the development and implementation of digital library capabilities and information technologies; and will represent Milner Library within the University and throughout the state and nation.

"Illinois State University will benefit from Dr. Wastawy's incredible breadth and depth of experience, including her tenure at the Library of Alexandria where she led the nation of Egypt in library standards development," Everts said.  "She has presented across the world, raised more than $9 million in the past two years for her library and led the library profession in the Arabic speaking states in a new direction."

Wastawy has served as the chief librarian at the Bibliotheca Alexandrina/Library of Alexandria in Egypt for the past six years.  Prior to that she was dean/director of Libraries at the Illinois Institute of Technology. Wastawy received a doctorate in library and information management from Simmons College in Boston, Mass., and a doctorate in comparative linguistics from Cairo University in Egypt, a master's degree in library and information sciences from Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. and a master's degree in African languages and bachelor's degree in semitic languages from Cairo University.

During her tenure at Bibliotheca Alexandrina/Library of Alexandria, Wastawy trained over 100 new librarians on modern librarianship practice, established two professional development programs to address the shortage of library education in Egypt, combined five major specialized libraries into one library institution and hosted hundreds of dignitaries from world leaders to diplomats, scientists and Nobel laureates at the Library of Alexandria.

Wastawy is a preservation and access advisory board member of the International Federation of Library Associations (IFLA) and serves on the professional development standing committee.  She is a board member for the International Association of Technical University Libraries and executive committee member of the European Commission Network of Excellence, RAMSES2.  Wastawy has been honored with the IFLA's High-Level Colloquium on Information Literacy and Lifelong Learning medallion and with a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Egyptian Library Association. She was a Fulbright Scholar and received a Peace Fellowship.