May 23-24, 2002

ITEM 115-2001-R0502 Authorization to Confer the Title of Professor Emeritus of Librarianship upon Mary Bushing; Montana State University-Bozeman

 

THAT: Mary Bushing, Associate Professor of Librarianship, in her 13 years of dedicated service to Montana State University, merits the commendation of the Board of Regents of the Montana University System and has earned the title of Professor of Librarianship Emeritus.

 

EXPLANATION: Prof. Bushing received her B.A. degree from George Williams College in 1973;her M.L.S. from Dominican University in 1975; and her Ed.D. in 1995 from Montana State University. She became Collection Development Librarian at Montana State University in 1988 and has served in that capacity in an exemplary manner until her retirement on May 2002.

During her 13 years of service at the MSU Libraries, Prof. Bushing has come to be considered one of the foremost experts on the process and usefulness of assessment and the use of the conspectus methodology in library collection development. She is the primary author of the last three editions of the OCLC conspectus manual used worldwide, including at the British Library and academic libraries in Greece, France, Wales, Canada, New Zealand, Australia, the Netherlands, and Latin America. The most recent edition was translated into Spanish for use in Latin American libraries. The manual is currently being translated into Czech for a cooperative project in the libraries of the Czech Slovak republics. This expertise has resulted in requests for international consulting and training work in New Zealand, Australia, Greece, and the Czech Republic as well as consulting for San Francisco Public Library System, both Salt Lake City and Salt Lake County library systems, Multnohma County Library System (Portland), and numerous state and regional library projects. She has conducted credit and non-credit continuing education courses for the University of Wisconsin-Madison, University of Alaska-Anchorage, Northern State University, South Dakota, University of Wyoming, and state library agencies in Montana, South Dakota, North Dakota, Iowa, Illinois, Missouri, California, New Mexico, Wyoming, Idaho, Washington, Oregon, Alaska, Utah, Tennessee, and Nevada.

Prof. Bushing has also had considerable impact via her research and training interest in the professionalization, training, and mentoring of library staff members in rural public and school libraries. Her research has become a key element in the training of consultants at state library agencies throughout the United States and has resulted in requests for consulting and training throughout the country.

In the area of librarianship, her most significant contributions to MSU have been the preparation of written policies to guide collection decisions and in building collections in all formats that meet the needs of students, faculty, and researchers within the constraints of available resources. While minimizing costs--or "getting the biggest bang for the buck," she has also improved the quality and availability of resources in all formats. Her collaborative work with faculty throughout the university has contributed significantly to a change in attitude and level of support for the MSU Libraries. Her work has also been of significance in the area of cooperative collection development, bringing together expertise in collections and information with an ability to work with people to accomplish common goals in resource sharing. This has been particularly significant in working with the four MSU campus libraries in an effort to make the sum of the whole greater than sum of the parts and to educate the library staff members in each location so as to enhance their collective resources. It has also been useful in negotiating with vendors on behalf of all four campuses and in working with a wide range of consortia on behalf of MSU-Bozeman.

In addition, she has played a leadership role in The Libraries, the university and the profession, serving in appointed and elected positions at all levels from local to national, including as president of the Montana Library Association. Her status in the Montana library community was affirmed last year when she was awarded the Sheila Cates Librarian of the Year Award for her contributions to Montana libraries as a consultant, trainer, friend and leader.