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Irene M.H. Herold

  • Dean of Libraries and University Librarian

  • Professor
  • Administration

Herold assumed the leadership of VCU Libraries in August, 2021. 

Herold’s academic library career spans nearly 30 years and includes leadership roles at several academic libraries and in professional organizations, including service as president of the Association of College and Research Libraries.

In her previous post as Librarian of the College at the College of Wooster in Ohio, she was instrumental in fostering a strategic plan and vision for the Libraries that resulted in student focused initiatives, consortial digital scholarship initiatives and library staff development via cultural competency work and participation in immersion programs. Wooster, with an enrollment of about 2,000, is known for outstanding mentorship of undergraduate researchers, which is also a priority at VCU. 

Herold previously served as university librarian at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, dean of Mason Library at Keene State College, director of the Anne Bridge Baddour Library at Daniel Webster College and public services librarian at Monmouth College.

She is the author of two books, Leading Together: Academic Library Consortia and Advocacy and Creating Leaders: An Examination of Academic and Research Libraries Leadership Institutes, as well as numerous journal articles and book chapters on academic libraries and library leadership. Link to recent publications

She brings to VCU a broad national view of the changing information landscape and trends and challenges in academic libraries. 

Beyond her research and scholarship in librarianship, she served on the editorial boards of College and Undergraduate Libraries Journal and Library Issues. 

At VCU, Herold oversees two main library locations, James Branch Cabell Library on the Monroe Park Campus and the Health Sciences Library on the MCV Campus, as well as auxiliary library operations including the VCUarts Qatar Library on VCU's Doha, Qatar, campus and the VCU Medical Center Health and Wellness Library, operated by the VCU Libraries in partnership with the VCU Health System. 

Curriculum vitae

 

Ph.D., Graduate School of Library and Information Science, Simmons College
M.A. history, Western Illinois University 
M.L.S., University of Washington 
B.A, English, University of Washington