FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. - University Libraries are pleased to welcome Tom W. Dillard as head of the Special Collections Department. Dillard comes to the U of A from the Butler Center for Arkansas Studies in Little Rock, a division of the Central Arkansas Library System and a leading public agency in the field of Arkansas studies.

In 1997 Dillard raised the endowment to fund the Butler Center, which has since grown from an initial staff of three to a staff of 15 employees. Dillard built collaborative relationships with the Arkansas Historical Society, the Arkansas Genealogical Society and the Old State House Museum to undertake innovative program activities including the "Arkansas Jeopardy" project, the "Legacies and Lunch" program series and the creation of an Arkansas history teacher fellowship program.

Dillard also directed the development of television and Internet programs to promote genealogical research and Arkansas history and the creation of a bank of lesson plans on Arkansas history education designed to improve the teaching of this subject in schools across the state.

Dillard has published many articles on Arkansas history and won a number of awards, including being named the Arkansas Humanist of the Year by the Arkansas Humanities Council in 1984 and receiving the President's Award from the Arkansas Library Association in 1997, the Award of Merit for Preservation of Arkansas History by the American Association for State & Local History in 1999, and the Lifetime Achievement Award by the Arkansas Historical Association in 2001. Before establishing the Butler Center, Dillard served as Director of the University of Central Arkansas Archives in Conway and as the Director of the Department of Arkansas Heritage in Little Rock.

The University Libraries' Special Collections Department acquires and preserves material for research in the history, literature and culture of Arkansas and surrounding regions. The department consists of Research Services, Manuscripts and Archives and University Archives. As head of the department, Dillard's general duties include coordinating resource-sharing efforts with national, regional and state library consortia and historical societies, promoting activities to expand the use of Special Collections materials, and actively seeking collections to support all academic programs. Dillard will assume his duties on October 4, 2004.