Dale Canelas to retire as Director of University of Florida Libraries
Dale Canelas, director of University Libraries since 1985, will retire at the end of January. Having served as the director for twenty-two years, Canelas has the longest tenure of any library director at the university. She is saluted not for the time she has spent in the libraries, but for what she has accomplished.
Canelas came to UF from Stanford University, where she served as the libraries’ director for public services. Today’s library is very different from the one that greeted her in 1985. At that time, the library world was largely a print world. There were no online resources for library users, no Web, and e-mail was just beginning to be used here. Campus libraries still had card catalogs, and Marston Science Library was under construction. Most books now housed in Library West were in Library East along with reserve services, and Library West was taken up primarily with special collections rooms and staff work areas.
Today’s libraries at the University of Florida – those things apparent to all as well as the behind-the-scenes policies, procedures and infrastructure – are largely the result of her leadership. Her major accomplishments include the following:
• Establishment of a Collection Management Department and collection management program through which subject specialists direct the acquisition and management of collections and act as liaisons between academic departments and the libraries
• Establishment of a preservation program to prevent, confront and repair physical damage to the collections (caused by age, use, heat, humidity, insects, dust, etc.)
• Establishment of a development program to identify friends and raise funds to support the collection and other needs of the libraries
• Establishment of the Digital Library Center to digitize, preserve and make accessible electronically resources of the libraries and the university
• Renovation of Smathers Library (Library East) to provide excellent physical conditions for the use and preservation of Florida’s Special and Area Studies Collections
• Establishment of the SUS Electronic Resources Committee to provide for statewide consortial pricing, thus reducing UF’s costs for electronic collections
• Construction and opening of the Marston Science Library to support science, agriculture and engineering programs
• Renovation and expansion of Library West, the main humanities and social sciences library at the University of Florida
• Creation of an off-site storage facility
• Integration of technology with collections and services
• Creation of a Human Resources Office including a staff development program to ensure that staff have the skills needed to handle technology and meet the evolving needs of library users
In addition to her accomplishments at UF, Canelas has served as a leader among her professional library colleagues in the state and nation. For ten years she chaired Florida’s State University System Council of Library Directors and the Board of Directors for the Florida Center for Library Automation. She served on the Governing Board of the Research Libraries Group. For ten years she served on the Board of the Center for Research Libraries which provides sophisticated area studies research support for member libraries. She was elected to the Board of the Association for Research Libraries, served as a member of numerous ARL committees, and chaired its Committee on Research Collections. She was an elected member of the American Library Association’s Council and was President of the Library Administration and Management Association. Her presentations and publications have focused on change, technology, personnel development and management, library building design, and the evolving nature and role of the research library.
Canelas and her husband Marcelo plan to remain in Gainesville. She will now have more time to travel, enjoy opera and dance performances, and explore other interests.
