Former Dean of Ball State University Libraries Michael B. Wood Retires

Dr. Wood began his career at the University Libraries in 1979 as a Periodicals Reference Librarian. From that position, he quickly advanced to Dean of University Libraries. Under his stewardship, the libraries moved to the world of automation beginning with the introduction of online bibliographic search services and the replacement of the traditional card catalog in favor of an online version, and progressed from there.
Dr. Wood expanded Ball State University’s participation in state library organizations and initiatives. As a library advocate he served in many capacities, meeting with the state legislature, writing reports for the Indiana Conference for Higher Education, serving on state task forces, and at the Governor’s request, acting as delegate to the Indiana Conference on Libraries and Information Science.
Dr. Wood was also in demand as a library consultant, especially regarding library automation, and he delivered many conference presentations on library automation and managerial issues.
Throughout, Dr. Wood was committed to the principles of higher education and maintained high standards. He instituted scholarships to support library staff pursuing graduate degrees in librarianship and was recognized for leadership in providing services to disabled library users. He was very successful in extramural fund-raising to support library programs and collections.
After serving 20 years as Dean, Dr. Wood returned to a more scholarly side of librarianship and used his many skills as Librarian in the Archives and Special Collections Research Center.
We thank Dr. Wood for his many contributions as librarian, administrator, and scholar, and we wish him the best in the future.

This article was published in The Library Insider May 2006, pg. 1.