Contact: Maridith Geuder
The dean of libraries at Mississippi State University is being named to a five-year term on the Mississippi Library Commission Board of Commissioners.
Frances N. Coleman has been appointed by Gov. Kirk Fordice for a term that begins this month and continues through 2003.
A faculty member at Mississippi State since 1969, she was named dean of libraries in 1997. In that role, she is responsible for a $6.5 million budget and a library system that includes Mitchell Memorial Library, the School of Architecture Library, and the College of Veterinary Medicine Library, as well as branches at MSU-Meridian and other off-campus locations.
In addition, Coleman is coordinator of the library's special collections, which include the papers of novelist John Grisham, former U.S. congressman G.V. "Sonny" Montgomery, the late U.S. senator John C. Stennis, and others.
She is leading Mississippi State's efforts to achieve membership in the Association of Research Libraries, a non-profit organization that shapes policy development for the nation's research libraries. Currently, no Mississippi library is among the approximately 120 in North America holding membership.
Coleman is a member of the American Library Association, the Association of College and Research Libraries, Library Administration and Management Association, Southeastern Library Association, and the Mississippi Library Association. She is past president of the Mississippi Library Association.
She has chaired the Mississippi Alliance for Gaining New Opportunities through Library Information Access (MAGNOLIA), a statewide resource sharing project. She is vice president/president-elect of the Southeastern Library Association.
Coleman received her bachelor's degree from Mississippi State and her master of library science degree from the George Peabody College for Teachers in Nashville, Tenn.