Dean of libraries retires

After more than three decades working for IU's library system, Dean of University Libraries Patricia Steele will be leaving Bloomington for the same position at University of Maryland, Provost Karen Hanson announced Monday.

She has been the Ruth Lilly Dean of University Libraries, a role that leads the library system on all eight IU campuses and gives specific guidance to Bloomington, since 2005.

"Pat has provided outstanding leadership for the University Libraries," Hanson said, according to an IU press release. "She has been both an energetic innovator and a wise conservator of our best traditions. The University is in her debt. We will greatly miss her, but of course we wish her well at Maryland."

Steele was schedule to retire from IU in the fall, so a committee in search of an interim dean already had convened in the spring, according to the same release.

"As you can imagine, after decades of association with Indiana University, this move to the University of Maryland will be quite a change in my personal and work lives," Steele said in the release. "I know that every day I will draw upon the experience I have gained at this extraordinary university, its world-class library and all the people who make it happen. It always will be part of me."