Campus Invited to Job Talks for Head of Scholarly Communications

The search committee for the university's first head of the Office of Scholarly Communications, a collaborative and interdisciplinary position reporting to the dean of libraries and the vice provost for research and economic development, has invited two candidates to campus to interview and give public presentations.

The candidates, Melody Herr and Mark Konecny, will both speak on "Establishing a Scholarly Communications Program at the University of Arkansas." Herr will give her talk at 9 a.m. Wednesday, Jan. 20, and Konecny will give his talk at 9 a.m. Thursday, Jan. 21. 

The entire campus community is invited to attend the presentations, to be held at the Donald W. Reynolds Center Auditorium (RCED 120). Immediately following each presentation, please join the candidate for a brief, informal coffee break in the Donald W. Reynolds Center Atrium (RCED 101).

Melody Herr is the senior acquiring editor for politics and government, and program and project manager at the University of Michigan Press. She is in charge of public relations, outreach, and project management that includes strategic planning, and has developed an international network across academia, the publishing industry, and the non-profit sector. Herr has a doctorate in the history of science, medicine and technology from Johns Hopkins University and a Bachelor of Arts in biology from Millersville University of Pennsylvania. She completed a pre-doctoral fellowship at the Smithsonian Institution.

Mark Konecny is the associate director and librarian at the Institute of Modern Russian Culture in Los Angeles, California. He is also editor of the journal Experiment, a scholarly art history journal which publishes articles in French, German, Italian, English and Russian, and is experienced with copyright and image right issues, as well as with problems transitioning from traditional print to digital publication. Konecny has a Master of Arts and doctorate in Slavic studies from the University of Southern California, a Master of Library and Information Science from the Marshall School of Business at the University of Southern California, and a Bachelor of Arts in English and philosophy from Texas A&M University.

The head of the Office of Scholarly Communications will oversee the office, develop and implement a scholarly communications program and the Institutional Repository, and educate the campus community about scholarly publishing and issues related to open access, copyright and intellectual property.

The search committee is chaired by Bob Beitle, associate vice provost for research and economic development, and includes Micah Hale, professor of civil engineering; Beth Juhl, web services librarian; and Randy Thompson, director of Young Law Library and Information Technology Services. Please visit the Libraries' website for additional information.