Leah McGinnis Dunn Appointed Director of Hege Library
Leah McGinnis Dunn, a library administrator at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill since 1998, has been appointed director of Hege Library. Vice President and Academic Dean Adrienne Israel announced the appointment, which is effective Aug. 18.
As director of undergraduate and branch libraries at UNC Chapel Hill, Dunn managed the R.B. House Undergraduate Library and nine branch libraries within the University Library System. The undergraduate library serves 1.1 million visitors annually.
“Leah Dunn has the insight and experience to be an excellent director of Hege Library,” said Israel. “We are very fortunate to have attracted such an innovative leader who has depth of experience in library administration, demonstrated commitment to the liberal arts, and sensitivity to student needs. I anticipate that Leah will help the library become even more valued than it has been in the past as a learning resource for students, faculty, and the greater community.”
As Guilford’s library director, Dunn will be responsible for the overall management of Hege Library, including the supervision of 12 staff members, program development and evaluation, organization of operations, budgeting, and external relations both within and beyond the college. The position has both faculty and staff status.
Hege Library has more than 240,000 books, periodicals and non-print media. Its reading room and original stacks are in their 100th anniversary year—one of the few original Andrew Carnegie-funded libraries still in use as libraries in the United States. Also located in Hege Library are the Guilford College Art Gallery and Friends Historical Collection, a comprehensive research collection of materials pertaining to the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers).
While at UNC Chapel Hill, Dunn was coordinator of the $11 million renovation of the undergraduate library from 2000 to its grand re-opening in August 2002. Other positions she held in 11 years at the university were head and assistant head of the undergraduate library and electronic reserves librarian.
From 1996-98, she was the librarian for the Bermuda Biological Station for Research, a U.S. non-profit marine facility.
Dunn served as co-chair of the Association of College and Research Libraries’ (ACRL) Undergraduate Libraries Discussion Group and the co-chair of the ACRL’s Electronic Reserve Discussion Group. She served as president of the Librarians’ Association at UNC Chapel Hill.
Dunn earned a bachelor of arts in English and African studies from UNC Chapel Hill in 1992 and a master of science in library science there in 1995. Her husband, Alvis, has served as an assistant professor of history at Guilford since 2006.
She succeeds Mary Ellen Chijioke, who was director of the library from August 2000 until her retirement in January 2009.
August 4, 2009