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Simmons Graduate School of Library and Information Science Appoints New Dean

BOSTON (Sept. 19, 2002) — Michèle V. Cloonan, Ph.D., formerly associate professor and chair at the University of California at Los Angeles in the Department of Information Studies, has been appointed by the Simmons College Board of Trustees as the Dean of the Simmons Graduate School of Library and Information Science (GSLIS). She officially joined Simmons in September.

Cloonan has been chair of UCLA’s information studies department for five years, has been associate professor there since 1995, and has been a member of the faculty there since 1991. Among the professional positions she has held, she was curator of printed books at Smith College Libraries and preservation librarian at Brown University Libraries. Cloonan has written numerous books and scholarly articles in the fields of preservation and publishing history.

Among her many awards and honors are fellowships from the Newberry Library, the Bibliographic Society of America, and the Virginia Center for the Performing Arts. Cloonan is the former chair of the Library History Roundtable of the American Library Association. She belongs to numerous professional organizations and has been a grant reviewer for the National Endowment for the Humanities since the 1980s.

Cloonan holds a Ph.D. in library and information science from the University of Illinois, where she also received a master’s in the same subject. She received another master’s in general studies in the humanities from the University of Chicago, and her bachelor’s degree from Bennington College.

"Michèle is both visionary and practical, and has a strong reputation as someone who has worked collaboratively with faculty and other departments or schools at UCLA," said Simmons President Daniel Cheever, Jr. "She is also the first woman dean of the GSLIS."

Simmons Graduate School of Library and Information Science is consistently ranked among the top in the nation. It has the largest library and information science master’s program in the nation.