75th Anniversary Scholarship Donor: Robert F. Rose

As part of the celebration of ACRL’s 75th Anniversary, we’ve launched a fundraising campaign to fund 75 scholarships for ACRL 2015. Over the course of the campaign, we’ll profile the ACRL 75th Anniversary scholarship donors and learn why they chose to support to the campaign.

Robert RoseRobert F. Rose is Director of Libraries Emeritus, University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire. He served on the ACRL Board of Directors from 1999 to 2003, and has been a Friend of ACRL since 1999.

1. Describe yourself in three words: Curious, questioning, retired.

2. Why do you support the 75th ACRL Anniversary scholarship campaign? ACRL conferences provide a great opportunity for librarians to enhance their professional development and to meet new colleagues. Supporting the scholarship campaign was a way to encourage younger and/or newer librarians (or first-time attendees generally) to attend the Portland conference.

3. What might someone be surprised to know about you? I have a fairly large art collection, consisting of more than 175 pieces of original art, pottery, art glass and some sculpture.

4. Since you’ve become a member of ACRL, tell us about someone who influenced you in some way. There were actually a number of people who influenced me, but one person who stands out is Mary Reichel. Mary exhibited a strong yet very inclusionary leadership style while on the ACRL Board and serving as the ACRL President.

5. What do you hope ACRL will achieve in the next 75 years? To still be a leader in advocating for the role of libraries (in whatever form) and librarians and their importance to the educational process.

6. In your opinion, what is the most important work that ACRL does? Besides its advocacy role, I think the most important work that ACRL does is in terms of its support for professional development. For me, the most important things in my own professional development were working in different university libraries and systems and my involvement with ACRL through my work on various committees and by attending programs and conferences at both the national and state levels. I believe I became a better librarian because of both experiences.