Each day, UNC library officials comb through intellectual texts amassed over two centuries, but they soon will lose one of their most valuable resources.
Deputy University Librarian Larry Alford will end his 30-year tenure at UNC on Jan. 31 to become the vice provost for libraries and university librarian at Temple University in Philadelphia.
Alford, whose salary as of October 2004 was $124,000 a year, began working at the library in 1970 as a UNC sophomore and jokes that he “never left college.”
Despite being passed over for UNC’s top librarian post, Alford told Temple officials that he wasn’t interested in leaving UNC when they first contacted him last summer.
But after some prodding, he decided to consider the post seriously. After a yearlong, nationwide search that was narrowed down to four finalists, Alford accepted Temple’s invitation.
“I was really impressed in the vision that the (Temple) president and the provost have and the resources that they’re willing to commit,” he said.
With his new title in hand, Alford is the focal point of that new vision. He will be Temple’s first vice provost for library affairs and the first to oversee all 17 campus libraries.
Richard Englert, chairman of the search committee, said Alford’s qualities aligned perfectly with his expectations for the position.
“We wanted to go for someone who came from an outstanding research university,” he said. “We also wanted someone who could come in and look at the university from a vantage point of the future.”
