JMU welcomes new dean of Libraries and Educational Technologies

James Madison University’s undergraduate focus, especially with its strong liberal arts tradition coupled with undergraduate research opportunities, drew Dr. Adam Murray to serve as the new dean of Libraries and Educational Technologies.

He previously served for nearly eight years as dean of university libraries at Murray State University in Kentucky, where he earlier worked as an acquisitions librarian.

A first-generation college graduate who grew up on a small family farm near Rocky Mount, N.C., Murray said, “I know how transformational higher education can be.” While he did not consider a career in library sciences as an undergraduate student, Murray said his liberal arts background “taught me well” and offered transferable skills to make his professional path successful.

Murray holds an Ed.D. in postsecondary education leadership from Western Kentucky University, a master of library and information science from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro and a bachelor of arts in philosophy and religious studies from UNC-Wilmington.

He views the opportunities and challenges facing Libraries and Educational Technologies – the Carrier, Rose and Music libraries, Center for Instructional Technology, and Media Resource Center – as ones facing all libraries. Open access of research, including data, is an area that librarians continue to wrestle with.

Future expansion and renovation of Carrier Library are among the projects Murray envisions are ahead. He points to the library’s established liaison program with academic divisions as a model of how librarians can help academics. “Librarians are not just collections builders anymore,” he said.

For pleasure reading Murray enjoys the fiction of Ernest Hemingway and John Steinbeck as well as fantasy and graphic novels. His nonfiction reading encompasses higher education changes and academic leadership.

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