NEWS: TAMIU hires first-ever library dean

By Alyssa Medina
Bridge Staff Writer
Published Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2024

Dean Colleen Harris recently became the first-ever dean of the Sue & Radcliffe Killam Library at TAMIU. Historically, the University’s library leader has been a director, rather than a dean.

Texas A&M International University conducted a search for this new position earlier this year.

“I did a nationwide job hunt, so I was fortunate to see a lot of positions across the country, and I fell in love with TAMIU for a couple of reasons,” Harris said.

Harris recounts the day of her interview, which coincided with the students’ first day of school in mid-January. 

“The students were enthusiastic to be here, the faculty seem to really love their jobs and everyone seems to have a great opinion about the folks who work in the library,” she said. “They desire to be everything students need. So that, to me, is a sign of a place that I want to work.”

Harris recognizes the library’s appearance as a traditional home for books; she plans to innovate to accommodate students and faculty’s learning needs.

“In the long term, I hope that the impact that I have is to help the library transform in two ways: become more active in the lives of our students and faculty so programming is no longer new but expected of us and we also have an outreach and marketing team among the staff who are also working on Silent Book Club and Craft Noons, [which are] more fun ways to engage with the library that aren’t research-related,” she said. “The second part is, the provost and president are asking folks to start thinking about a trajectory to what’s called an R2 university, which is more focused on the research experience for students and developing additional research-related degrees.”

Executive Assistant Gladys Perez works with Harris.

“It has been eye-opening,” Perez said. “It has been a change for the better; she would listen to everyone’s ideas and opinions and still make the best decisions for the library. A couple of weeks ago, we just instituted that the library website now has a link to the library events calendar.”

The library aims to offer workshops, such as How To Turn a Paper Topic into a Research Paper and An Introduction to Archives and Special Collections in the near future.