LOS ANGELES — Mihoko Hosoi, Penn State University Libraries associate dean for collections, research and scholarly communications, has been selected to participate in the 2024 UCLA Library Senior Fellows program. She joins a cohort of 20 senior academic librarians from across the United States and the United Kingdom.
The biennial residential program, held in July, combines management perspectives, strategic thinking and practical and theoretical approaches to the issues confronting academic libraries, preparing fellows to pursue advanced leadership roles in the field.
“As a 2018 fellow, I value how much the UCLA Library Senior Fellows program intentionally built a cohort of not just good colleagues, but good friends and good advisors from across many different parts of the academic library landscape,” said Athena Jackson, Norman and Armena Powell University Librarian at UCLA. “The immersive experience and length of the program allowed for trust to be built and ideas to be shared candidly with a goal towards honing our skills as leaders and learners.”
More than 300 fellows have attended the program since its inception in 1982, and about 100 of its alumni have gone on to become library directors, including about 60 at Association of Research Libraries institutions.
“The UCLA Library Senior Fellows program has been nothing short of transformational for academic libraries,” said Janice Welburn, program director and a member of the 1999 cohort. “I am eager to welcome our new cohort to campus for a series of lectures, panels, workshops, and field trips and look forward to the lively debate, discussion and new friendships that will follow.”
Hosoi was named to the 2020-2021 Big Ten Academic Alliance (BTAA) Leadership Program cohort, and in July 2023 she completed a three-year term on the HathiTrust Program Steering Committee. Also in July 2023 she was elected and continues to serve as an elected American Library Association (ALA) Councilor-at-Large. She also has held leadership positions in the Special Libraries Association and the International Coalition of Library Consortia.
Considered the longest-running leadership development program in the library profession, the UCLA Library Senior Fellows program is administratively hosted and generously supported by the UCLA Library. The 2024 cohort will arrive on the UCLA campus July 7 for the three-week residential program.