Beverly P. Lynch is an American scholar, professor, librarian, and administrator. She was president of the

American Library Association The American Library Association (ALA) is a nonprofit organization based in the United States that promotes libraries and library education internationally. It is the oldest and largest library association in the world. History 19th century ...

from 1985 to 1986.

Education

Lynch earned a Bachelor of Science degree with majors in English and music from

North Dakota State University North Dakota State University (NDSU, formally North Dakota State University of Agriculture and Applied Sciences) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Fargo, North Dakota, United States. It was ...

, a Masters of Science degree in library sciences from the

University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC, U of I, Illinois, or University of Illinois) is a public land-grant research university in the Champaign–Urbana metropolitan area, Illinois, United States. Established in 1867, it is the f ...

, and a Ph.D. from the

University of Wisconsin–Madison The University of Wisconsin–Madison (University of Wisconsin, Wisconsin, UW, UW–Madison, or simply Madison) is a public land-grant research university in Madison, Wisconsin, United States. It was founded in 1848 when Wisconsin achieved st ...

Career

Lynch was executive director of the

Association of College and Research Libraries The American Library Association (ALA) is a nonprofit organization based in the United States that promotes library, libraries and library education internationally. It is the oldest and largest library association in the world. History 19th ...

from 1972 to 1977. She was the university librarian at the

University of Illinois at Chicago The University of Illinois Chicago (UIC) is a public research university in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Its campus is in the Near West Side community area, adjacent to the Chicago Loop. The second campus established under the Universi ...

from 1977 to 1989. In 1989 she was appointed dean of the University of California Los Angeles UCLA School of Education and Information Studies. She was far-thinking about education for librarians. She also directed the UCLA Senior Fellows program from 1991 to 2017, one of the most impactful professional development programs in academic librarianship. From 2000 to 2001 she took leave to lead the

Center for Research Libraries The Center for Research Libraries (also known by its acronym, CRL) is a consortium of North American universities, colleges, and independent research library, research libraries, based on a buy-in concept for membership of the consortia. The con ...

. Returning to UCLA she became the first director of UCLA'
California Rare Book School.
She served as president of the American Library Association from 1985 to 1986. Her papers are held at the American Library Association Archives.

Awards

In 1987, she was honored as a distinguished alumna by the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. She received a similar honor in 2009 from the University of Wisconsin at Madison. Lynch won the highest honors from the American Library Association. She was awarded the Joseph W. Lippincott Award in 2009, Melvil Dewey Medal in 2012 and the Beta Phi Mu Award for distinguished service to

education for librarianship Education is the transmission of knowledge and skills and the development of character traits. Formal education occurs within a structured institutional framework, such as public schools, following a curriculum. Non-formal education also fol ...

education in 2015.Dr. Beverly Lynch wins Beta Phi Mu Award.
American Library Association, 2015.

References

Presidents of the American Library Association North Dakota State University alumni University of Illinois School of Information Sciences alumni University of Illinois Chicago faculty University of Wisconsin–Madison alumni 1936 births Living people University of California, Los Angeles faculty American Library Association people {{ALA Presidents