Dr. Wayne Wiegand, Florida State University F. William Summers Professor of Library and Information Studies Emeritus, created the Dr. Jean E. Lowrie Global Lecture Endowment alongside his wife Shirley Wiegand to honor his mentor, Dr. Jean E. Lowrie.

The fund provides a speaker honorarium for a lecture series by the same name. It will support a distinguished speaker at the International Association of School Librarianship (IASL) annual conference. This year, the conference will be held July 12 to 16, and Dr. Wiegand will be the first keynote speaker to kick off the lecture series honoring Dr. Lowrie. The event takes place on the first day of the conference, July 12 at 10:00 am, CST. Marcia Mardis, Professor in FSU School of Information and Associate Dean for Research at the College of Communication and Information, will also participate in the conversation associated with Dr. Wiegand’s lecture during the event.

The start of the Dr. Jean E. Lowrie Global Lecture Series furthers Dr. Wiegand’s honoring of a devoted mentor. Dr. Lowrie was instrumental in providing Dr. Wiegand with the opportunity to receive a National Defense Education Act Fellowship while attending Western Michigan University’s School of Librarianship, and she continued to be his mentor throughout his professional career.

The Dr. Jean E. Lowrie Global Endowment will serve as a lasting tribute to the dedication of Dr. Jean E. Lowrie. She was the director of the School of Librarianship at Western Michigan University from 1963 to 1981, President of the American Library Association from 1973 to 1974, the first recipient of the ALA’s American Association of School Librarians Distinguished Service Award in 1978, and the founder of the International Association of School Librarianship.

Hosted by the University of North Texas, Dr. Wiegand’s lecture will be livestreamed as part of the IASL conference and recordings will be available to registered attendees. View the conference program and details here.