ELLEN KURT ASSISTANT NEWS EDITOR
Jean Donham will leave her position as head librarian at the end of the academic year to pursue a tenured-track faculty position.
“I wouldn’t leave Wartburg for any other college librarian job. . . . The only thing that would draw me away is the opportunity to teach, because I really like to teach,” Donham said.
She is moving to the University of Northern Iowa starting June 1. The UNI program specializes in school librarians so she will be teaching such things as how to manage libraries, courses in children’s resources, research methods and other things that librarians need to learn in order to do their job, Donham said.
“Right now places that train librarians are having a very difficult time finding people. There are not a lot of people around with a Ph.D. in a field that qualifies them to teach librarianship,” Donham said.
She has been working as a college librarian for 10 years. She worked at Cornell for eight years and has decided now to “go back to her roots” as she has previously been an associate professor in librarianship and information science at University of Iowa.
“The nice thing about librarianship is that you can shift from one kind of librarian to another,” Donham said.
Donham said that she will miss the students and faculty at Wartburg and wished that she had come sooner so that she could stayed longer.
Dean of Faculty Ferol Menzel has met with the library staff about the search for a new librarian. She has created a position description.
A national search is under way to find a replacement, and Menzel is eager to find someone. by the end of the spring.
Photo by Amanda Gahler