(via CARLI and Dr. Christophe Pierre, Vice President for Academic Affairs at UIUC)
Please join me in welcoming Anne Craig as the new Senior Director of the Consortium of Academic and Research Libraries in Illinois (CARLI). Anne will start on July 1, replacing Susan Singleton, who is retiring at the end of July.
Anne is currently the Director of the Illinois State Library, where she has held various roles since she started there as a Reference Librarian in 1989. During her tenure as Director, the Illinois State Library received many competitive grant awards, including most recently a $523,000 award to help libraries serve individuals on the autism spectrum. She has led the ILEAD USA Program, a leadership and technology skills continuing education program, adopted by 12 other state libraries. Also under her coordination, Illinois was selected as a Service Hub for the Digital Public Library of America. Anne worked with the state’s three library systems to establish landmark projects including the Patron Driven Acquisitions Project, the eRead Illinois Program, and the Dream Grant. The Veteran’s History Project, the Talking Book and Braille Service, and the Illinois Center for the Book have all been recognized by the Library of Congress as exemplary. Anne also instituted an outreach program that included mobile librarians and “Little Libraries” distributed throughout the state capital. Earlier in her career, Anne worked at Northern Illinois University’s Founders Memorial Library.
As an ex-officio board member of CARLI, Anne is familiar with the opportunities and challenges facing the organization. She brings extensive grant-writing experience and was recognized as the Illinois Library Association Librarian of the Year and the Alliance Library System Administrator of the Year, both in 2006. She has also given a number of professional presentations and contributed to numerous publications. Anne earned a Bachelor of Arts in Business and Translation French and a Master of Arts in Library and Information Studies, both from Northern Illinois University.