Evelyn H. Daniel


Dean and Professor Emerita
School of Information and Library Science
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Email: daniel@ils.unc.edu
Office Telephone: (919) 962-8062
Office Fax: (919)962-8071
P.O. Address: CB #3360, 207 Manning Hall
University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, NC 27599-3360

About Me

I arrived in Chapel Hill in June 1985 and spent my first five years here as dean of the School of Information and Library Science. Prior to that I served as dean for the School of Information Studies at Syracuse University for five years. Although I enjoyed the administrator role, being a faculty member offers a greater opportunity to work with students which I find rewarding. I moved to phased retirement some years ago and then returned to act as Associate Dean for Academic Affairs for SILS for two years. I retired again and since that time have been teaching HAPPILY one course a semester as an adjunct instructor.

About Teaching

. I have taught a variety of subjects at (or for in the case of distance education) the universities of Rhode Island, California at Chico and at San Jose, Kentucky, Illinois, Maryland, Washington, in addition to Syracuse and UNC. My teaching focuses on management and policy topics of one kind or another -- basic management, marketing, knowledge management, strategic planning, grant writing, information brokering and competitive intelligence -- and more recently education for library and information science at the doctoral level. I taught a first year seminar on information policy (a great experience and a great topic) and a series of short courses for UNC faculty and graduate students seeking to learn more about online teaching and instructional design. I served as Coordinator of the School Library Program for a number of years and have a particular soft spot for school librarians. I've also taught the Special Libraries course a number of times and enjoy the entrepreneurial challenges and adaptability required by folks in corporate information support positions. I'm enthusiastic about teaching and like to experiment with way of involving students more directly in building a learning community over the course of a semester. A few of the websites or syllabi for recent courses may be found listed below.

About Research.

My most recent research activity has been an examination of library/information science education program in the Arab world. Working with colleagues Barbara Moran and Lokman Meho, we prepared a chapter entitled, "Education for Library and Information Science in the Arab States." This was published in a collection, Library and Information Science in the Middle East and North Africa (Berlin/Boston, DeGruyter, 2016). This monograph is a part of a Global Studies in Libraries and Information series edited by Ian Johnson for IFLA (The International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions).

On the Personal Side.

I am a keen supporter of public libraries and served for many years on the Board of Trustees for the Chapel Hill Public Library. Currently, as a member of the Friends of the Chapel Hill Public Library, I coodinate a monthly program called Meet the Author featuring recent local North Carolina authors. I participate in a number of book discussion groups, one of ways I see of building civic community. I have four children, two of whom live close by which is nice. I also have seven grandchildren and three great-grandchildren. Four of my grandchildren live nearby and three live in Maine (my birthplace and home of my heart where I spend the summer). I am interested in animal including human behavior and am persuaded that animals enjoy (or suffer) the same emotions that humans do. I also have a long term interest in ecology and plant behavior and have worked with the NC Botanical Garden on a number of project. I always have a number of animal companions -- currently one kind and gentle dog, Margarita, who comes with me to SILS most days (see pictures above and below), and one small black cat -- Cali. Another personal interest is linguistics. I have studied a little French, Latin, Greek, Russian, German, Italian and Arabic but unfortunately have only a reading knowledge of these languages. I read a lot -- a wide variety of contemporary and natural history literature with other topics as people recommend them to me or as selected by the various book clubs I belong to. I also enjoy a Friday night movie group; we tend to see lots of foreign and independent films, documentaries, and the like. And I'm an opera enthusiast. I host a monthly opera presentation at the Senior Center.

Recent Course Syllabi

Some of the recent course syllabi for courses that I teach may be found at the following spots:

Last update: Aug. 16,2016
Mail to: Evelyn Daniel