Association of Research Libraries (ARL®)

Charles B. Lowry became Association of Research Libraries (ARL) Executive Director in 2008 for a three-year term and at the request of the Board has extended that term through June 2013. He was appointed professor emeritus and retired from the University of Maryland in 2010. He has led the Association of Research Libraries through significant expansion in membership and a renewed strategic plan. During his tenure, ARL’s capacities and offerings have been strengthened and expanded.

ARL is a not-for-profit membership organization comprising the leading research libraries in North America. ARL’s mission is to influence the changing environment of scholarly communication and the public policies that affect research libraries and the communities they serve. The Association pursues this mission by advancing the goals of its member research libraries, providing leadership in public and information policy to the scholarly and higher education communities, fostering the exchange of ideas and expertise, and shaping a future environment that leverages its interests with those of allied organizations. ARL operates as a forum for the exchange of ideas and as an agent for collective action. There are currently 125 members of ARL.

Lowry was previously the Dean of Libraries at the University of Maryland College Park (1996–2008)—a system composed of seven libraries. Lowry is also a professor in the University of Maryland College of Information Studies and will return to teach there in 2011. Lowry has directed five academic and research libraries. He was University Librarian at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh where he led significant information technology initiatives (1992–96). Prior to that he served as Director of Libraries at University of Texas Arlington, University of South Alabama, and Elon University.

Lowry has been the principal investigator on federal grants and foundation grants; has served as a consultant on library building projects, technology, organization and management; and has published articles and commentary on library management and organization, information technology and cooperation. He is the Past Editor and Founding Associate Editor of Library Administration and Management, the journal of the Library Administration and Management Association. He edited the column “Managing Technology” appearing in the Journal of Academic Librarianship, JAI Press (1995–99). Lowry is the Founding Executive Editor (2000–03) and Editor (2004–08) of the journal portal: Libraries and the Academy from the John's Hopkins Press of which he is Editor Emeritus.

Lowry has served extensively in statewide consortial leadership positions in Alabama, Maryland, Pennsylvania, and Texas. He also has served in regional and national consortia. He was Chair (1991–92) and is Past Treasurer of the Amigos Board of Directors (Dallas TX), and the Vice Chair and Chair-Elect of the Texas Council of State University Librarians (1989–92). He was a member and Chair of the OCLC Advisory Committee on College and University Libraries (1991–96) and the OCLC Research Libraries Advisory Committee (1999– ). Lowry has also served on numerous American Library Association, Association of College and Research Libraries, and Library Administration and Management Association (LAMA) committees, and was a member of the LAMA Board for two years. Since 1996 he has served extensively on committees of the Association of Research Libraries and was elected to the ARL Board of Directors for a three-year term (2005–08). He currently serves on the boards of the National Humanities Alliance, CNI, and SPARC.

Lowry is a member and Chair of the Board of Visitors, University of North Carolina, School of Information and Library Science (2010-present); the Board of Visitors of the University Library System, University of Pittsburgh (2003–present) and has served on review boards for the Florida State University Libraries (2005) and the McGill University Libraries (2003). He has served on accreditation teams for the New England Association of Colleges and Schools and the Middle States Commission on Higher Education. He has chaired the Executive Committee of the Maryland Digital Library project since its inception in 1999. University of Maryland Libraries are responsible for the fiduciary and technology support of this program of the Maryland Higher Education Commission that encompasses all of public and private post-secondary education in the state.

Lowry received his BS degree in history from Spring Hill College (1964); an MA in history from the University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa (1965); an MS in library science from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (1974); and a PhD in history from the University of Florida, Gainesville (1979). In 1985, he participated in the Senior Fellows Program at the UCLA Graduate School of Library and Information Science.

Contact:

Charles B. Lowry
Executive Director
Association of Research Libraries
21 Dupont Circle, Suite 800
Washington DC 20036

(202) 296-2296 office
(202) 872-0884 fax
e-mail: clowry@arl.org