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New director Stachacz envisions library as ‘information laboratory’
February 26, 2004 | |||||
KOKOMO, Ind.—John Charles Stachacz has been named the new director of the IU Kokomo Library, effective July 1. Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs Stuart Green has served as interim director since the June 2003 retirement of Richard Ardrey, who spent 38 years as library head.
Green said IU Kokomo’s search committee for a new librarian was impressed by Stachacz’s “vision for the 21st century library, his enthusiasm and his leadership skills and style.” Stachacz has been with the library department of Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, since 1981, rotating through several positions. He served as department chairman from 1990–1996, and, at various times, headed reference, acquisitions, circulation, collection development and online services. Most recently, he served as the Assistant Director of Research Services and Natural Sciences Librarian, working as liaison to all of Dickinson’s science departments and providing oversight of four science libraries across campus. A liberal arts college serving 2,200 students, Dickinson has a library collection of some 500,000 volumes, as well as 2,000 print and 8,000 electronic periodicals. Stachacz coordinated the writing of a building program for a 125,000-square foot addition to the library in 1998. The $12 million project increased the library’s overall size by 40 percent, he said. Wiring for laptop computers was installed for each new seat, allowing users to access the campus-wide network. Stachacz also oversaw recent library upgrades to add wireless communications within the library and an information commons—a student work area that integrates library reference desk services and information technology helpdesk services in one location. “I am a strong advocate of the library as an ‘information laboratory’—that place where faculty and students engage in, and contribute to, the ongoing intellectual conversation of scholars both past and present,” Stachacz said. “I also believe that as libraries become more involved with technology, library directors need to nurture ties with the members of instructional and institutional computing to encourage greater collaboration for the good of the institution.” Stachacz has outlined these principles for “The Library in the 21st Century” in numerous conference presentations and papers. Additional accomplishments at Dickinson cited by Stachacz included increasing the library’s materials budget by 41 percent over six years; developing strong ties with academic units; and migrating from “an antiquated home grown Online Public Access Catalog to an innovative Client/Server OPAC.” From 1978–1981, Stachacz worked as a serials and reference librarian at Washburn University, in Topeka, Kansas. A native of Cleveland, Ohio, Stachacz said he was “extremely pleased” to be selected by IU Kokomo, in part, because it brings him back to the Midwest. He sees the Kokomo directorship as “a wonderful blend of my professional and personal interests.” Stachacz earned an M.S. in Library Science from the University of Kentucky (UK) in 1978. He also holds an M.A. in geography from UK (1977) and a B.A in geography from the University of New Mexico (1975). He has taught courses in physical and cultural geography. “My particular interest is in political geography; I am most interested in the centrifugal forces that cause states to break up,” he said. “My regional specialty is in Russia and the countries that made up the former Soviet Union. I maintain an active book reviewing schedule in these fields to keep up with the current publications in this area.” Stachacz said he and his wife, Melissa, “are major movie fans, and I am a major baseball fan having been a catcher in my youth.” They have one daughter, Jennifer, who is completing master’s degree work at New York University.
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