Bibliophile: Summer 2025
Bibliophile is published in print and online semi-annually by the University of Kansas Libraries for alumni, friends, and benefactors. View and download the Summer 2025 Bibliophile print version.
‘Box of gratitude’ full of KU memories for former libraries dean
During a 50-year career in libraries lorraine j. haricombe has empowered all kinds of discoveries and overseen many collections, and as she prepares to retire from her position as vice provost and director of University of Texas Libraries, she has made a discovery of her own: a collection of memories.
As part of a recent move to a new home, haricombe found a box full of cards and notes from colleagues at KU Libraries, as well as clubs and organizations she belonged to in Lawrence when she served as Dean of KU Libraries from 2006-2014.
“It's my box of gratitude,” haricombe said. “I just felt enveloped by the warmth and the love of the people in Lawrence. I cried when I read some of these beautiful notes and remembered all the various people.”
That feeling has also helped inspire a planned gift to KU Libraries.
“I'm immensely grateful for the opportunity I had and for the privilege, really, that I had to serve at a place like KU and to help elevate the university nationally and globally through the open access initiative at the time,” haricombe said.
During her time at KU, haricombe helped guide a campus open
access movement into a pioneering adoption of official policy, the beginnings of a legacy of open scholarly communication.
Although their time at KU did not overlap, haricombe credits former KU provost David Schulenburger, for whom the libraries’ Office of Scholarly Communications is named, for laying fertile ground for the shift long before she arrived on campus.
“He left an ecosystem that was right for when we were ready for the next steps,” she said.
Haricombe built on this foundation, serving as the provost’s designate for implementing the open access policy, working with faculty and librarians to make KU the first public institution in the nation with a campus-wide open access policy.
Haricombe is a longtime supporter of open educational resources (OER) initiatives through her giving to KU Libraries, and she was inspired to do more. After returning to KU for the celebration of Watson Library’s Centennial in 2024, haricombe made an extraordinary planned gift to honor Watson’s milestone and to support its future.
Haricombe said Watson is still one of her favorite university buildings, and a photo of it hangs on the wall of her Texas office.
“At night when the lights are on and you drive down Jayhawk Boulevard, there's nothing like it. It's just simply stunning, and Carol Smith [current KU Libraries Dean] brings that drive and energy and passion to restore it to its former beauty,” she said.
Haricombe’s career has spanned two continents, with beginnings in the public library in her hometown in South Africa, where her mother served as library director for 28 years. Growing up, haricombe spent a lot of time in the library, and as a teenager she helped with children’s programs, including reading to youngsters at story time.
She earned a library information science degree from the University of the Western Cape, South Africa, and post-graduate degrees at the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign’s iSchool.
Haricombe grew up and went to library school in the time of Apartheid, and coming to the United States began an arc toward the open access leadership she would later realize.
“That seed was planted when I arrived at the University of Illinois as a student and saw the many, many books that I was not privy to, even as a library director in South Africa because of censorship,” she said. “I saw it and I found them all in the library on the open shelves at the University of Illinois. And I couldn't believe what we had been missing in South Africa because they were not available to us.”
Haricombe went on to serve as dean or vice provost of libraries at three institutions in the United States, beginning with a deanship at Bowling Green State University, then KU Libraries, and finally her time at UT libraries, where she has spent the last 10 1/2 years.
The open access work she helped spearhead continues through the Coalition of Open Access Policy Institutions (COAPI) hosted by Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition (SPARC), as well as through SPARC-Africa where haricombe has worked to advance open access at higher education institutions on the African continent.
Throughout her career, haricombe has held multiple leadership positions in key library organizations, and she speaks and writes about library leadership and open access nationally and internationally. A former member of the Board of Directors of the Association of Research Libraries (ARL), she served as president of ARL in 2019–2020. She has also held the position of chair of the Steering Committee of SPARC, and chair of the Greater Western Alliance of Libraries (GWLA), among others, and she is an elected member of the International Federation of Library Associations’ (IFLA) Standing Committee on Academic and Research Libraries. She served on Harvard Libraries’ Visiting Committee and is a member of the Hesburgh Libraries Advisory Council at Notre Dame University, the Libraries National Council at Washington University and the Board of Trustees at Atlanta University Center’s Woodruff Library.
For her pioneering work in open access policy and digital scholarship, haricombe was inducted to the Emily Taylor Center KU Women’s Hall of Fame in 2012.
She plans to continue to advance library values in retirement, serving on several boards and advisory councils, and remaining close to library work in the current challenging times.
“Libraries couldn't be more important amidst an ecosystem of misinformation and disinformation,” she said. “It's the human element in libraries, it's the librarian, their training and their commitment that help and support others towards success.”
Through the lasting impacts of her leadership and her ongoing and planned giving, haricombe leaves a legacy at KU and KU Libraries.
“It's always about the people,” haricombe said. “You know, on my own I can go fast, but together we can go further.”
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Group of moving collections shared via Snyder Book Collecting Contest
KU Libraries honored eight student finalists and awarded cash prizes at the 67th annual Snyder Book Collecting Contest during a reception April 24 at Watson Library. The contest, established in 1957 by libraries donor Elizabeth Snyder, is designed to recognize students' passion for creating personal book collections.
“Each (finalist) collected books not to impress, not to make money, not with a goal in sight, not even to simply hunt and own, but to more fully engage with a subject that moves them, intellectually, emotionally and even physically,” said keynote speaker Laura Moriarty, best-selling novelist and KU professor of creative writing. Moriarty served as a judge of the contest.
Charles Johnson, a senior from Lawrence, won first place in the undergraduate division of the contest for “Coming to Terms with Collective Violence: A Graphic Reconciliation,” a collection of graphic novels. Nicholas Hoekstra, a doctoral student in special education from Comstock Park, Mich., won first place in the graduate division with his entry, “From Black and White to Every Shade of Gray: The Changing Dynamics of Good and Evil in Fantasy.”
“I think this year was particularly special because so much is uncertain right now. It's always great to be able to look back and look forward with optimism and joy,” said Beth Whittaker, executive associate dean of KU Libraries and a longtime judge of the Snyder contest. “We really saw that this year with our finalists.”
First, second, and honorable mention awards were bestowed in both the undergraduate and graduate divisions. Each winner received a cash prize as well as a gift card from contest co-sponsor Jayhawk Ink, who displayed the top collections in a case outside the bookstore in the Kansas Union. Cash awards are made possible by an endowment fund created by Snyder. First place winners in each division are eligible to compete in the National Collegiate Book Collecting Contest, which awards a top prize of $2,500.
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Student-curated collection brings new items and opportunities to the libraries
As part of its ongoing commitment to broadening collections and incorporating stakeholder feedback, KU Libraries invited four undergraduate students to step behind the scenes and create their own collection as part of a new student curator pilot program that spanned two semesters.
Beginning last fall, students from KU Libraries Student Ambassadors Program — Margaret Baechle, Allison Bell, Ali Madden and Sarah Patti — met with librarians Amalia Monroe-Gulick and Sara Outhier to brainstorm ideas, and learn about the process of collection development and the various libraries departments that work together to provide access to resources. The students’ completed collection, “Page Turning Tropes: Your Favorite Narratives, Themes, Cliches, Archetypes,” debuted this spring.
Monroe-Gulick said the student curators learned about working within a budget, consulting a variety of sources, and collection development policies that encouraged them to understand their selections in a larger context.
“It’s not just about what you like, but thinking about expanding yourself when you’re creating a collection,” Monroe-Gulick said.
“We wanted to pick a theme which would appeal to many students with varied interests as well as increase the number of leisure reading books in the libraries,” said Bell, a fourth-year student studying linguistics and German Studies.
The students’ collection contains seven subtopics and more than 90 titles, including print and electronic books and streaming films available via digital platforms Libby and Swank.
The project installs the students as part of the legacy of KU Libraries, which has been building collections since the university’s beginnings, and is one of the top 50 libraries in the Association of Research Libraries by volumes held.
“The students are now part of that lineage of people who have helped steward this collection,” Outhier said. “The collection is a living thing. We add new things that are relevant. We maintain it but it’s not static, it’s an ongoing, living collection.”
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Author visit will kick off KU Reads 2025-26 program
A Lawrence campus visit from award-winning author John Green will be among the first events of the fall semester as the University of Kansas adopts his title, “The Anthropocene Reviewed,” as the 2025-26 KU Reads: A Common Book Experience selection.
“An Evening with John Green” will include a hosted conversation with the author, followed by an audience Q&A, at 7 p.m. Sept. 2 at the Lied Center of Kansas. A book signing will begin at 8:30 p.m. The event will be free of charge, with tickets available to KU students starting Aug. 18 at the Lied Center box office. Tickets will be available for the general public starting Aug. 22.
The book’s collection of essays explores various aspects of the human experience while illustrating the interconnectivity of life and prompting readers to think critically about the world around them. Surveying a wide range of familiar topics, the author employs a five-star rating system, thereby “reviewing” what it means to be human in the modern era.
KU Libraries Common Book Librarian Samantha Greeson said the book serves as an entry point to inspire curiosity and generate enthusiasm for scholarly inquiry about research topics in any field or discipline. Throughout the fall and spring semesters, the program will provide ample opportunities for students, faculty, staff, alumni, and community members to come together for engaged discussion and discovery, both in the classroom and beyond.
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Libraries Throwback
KU broke ground on an addition to Murphy Hall in February of 1999 and the libraries were among the first to occupy the space in June 2000. Gorton Music and Dance Library was the largest single component of the renovation and will celebrate 25 years of serving all music and dance faculty and students throughout the fall semester.
Photo credit: University Daily Kansan, University Archives, 1999.
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A Message From The Dean
Throughout KU Libraries each day, we are rising to meet the needs of a new era. Though these are challenging times, they are also precisely the moments that clarify why libraries exist, rooted in the enduring belief that knowledge matters, and preservation and equitable access to information is foundational to civilization. When our core values are challenged, the work of the libraries only grows more vital.
In this edition of Bibliophile, we see the essential mission of KU Libraries in action as we strengthen our campus commitments, deepen our community engagement, and work to transform our systems, spaces, and services. We are joining together with you to do this work with courage and resolve, and yes, with joy.
The impacts of our shared efforts are evident. The past year saw remarkable, sizable increases in usage of our spaces and resources — a 16% increase of in-person visits, welcoming more than 621,000 visitors and more than 3 million searches across a growing number of online databases. Just in Anschutz Library alone, there were more than 500 students and library users present in the building at one time on 62 different days. A rising number of students, faculty, researchers, and community members are choosing to engage with our librarians and library spaces, a very meaningful indicator of KU Libraries as a destination for trusted collaboration and belonging.
Your contributions help ensure our shared vision continues to flourish and grow, making a profound difference at a critical time. Thank you for joining with us to empower all Jayhawks — students, faculty, and the entire campus community.
With shared fortitude,
Carol E. Smith, Dean of Libraries
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Bibliophile is published in print and online semi-annually by the University of Kansas Libraries for alumni, friends, and benefactors. View and download the Summer 2025 Bibliophile print version.