LISNews: Librarian News

From http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA491141

After entering as a "bit player" among feudal lords, she became an honored, celebrated campus leader. Building and repositioning the library, Susan Nutter brought it from what one senior professor called "an embarrassment" to its current role and site, a central force and place in the academic enterprise at North Carolina State University (NCSU), Raleigh. As Vice Provost and director of libraries, Nutter "has taken a middling library and made it into a model for the entire profession," says her colleague Carla Stoffle, dean of libraries at the University of Arizona. "The NCSU libraries have come to be recognized across our campus as vital for the university's success," says NCSU provost James Oblinger. Despite these and many more achievements, she "supports and gives credit generously to others and is unduly modest about her own contributions," says Karin Wittenborg, university librarian at the University of Virginia.

Professor Michael K. Stoskopf tells how, with her guidance, the NCSU faculty decided to forgo personal salary increases during trying financial times in North Carolina. They insisted that the money go to support the development of the NCSU library. "This generous gift made with enthusiasm by the entire university faculty was the catalyst that allowed the transformation of our library to one worthy of respect and admiration," Stoskopf continues, adding, "It is as good an example as I can provide of Susan's special abilities."

Because of these achievements, and with these enthusiastic endorsements, the editors of LJ celebrate Nutter as the 2005 Library Journal Librarian of the Year.