Dr. Gus Friedrich will be stepping down from his position as dean of Rutgers SCILS after ten years.  During Dr. Friedrich’s tenure, the New Jersey State Library and Rutgers SCILS have enjoyed a renewed spirit of cooperation. 

During this time, the State Library and Rutgers SCILS have partnered in new and groundbreaking ventures.  The New Jersey State Library presented a very successful Diversity Conference in 2004, with SCILS faculty participating as presenters.  Rutgers SCILS also partnered with the New Jersey State Library, Thomas Edison State College, the Central Jersey Regional Library Cooperative, and the New Jersey Library Association and received two grants from the Laura Bush 21st Century Librarian Program from IMLS, totaling more than $1.5 million, to recruit urban librarians.  As a direct result of this grant, eight students have received their M.L.I.S. degrees, ten students are currently enrolled in the M.L.I.S. degree program at Rutgers SCILS, and two students are enrolled in the Ph.D. program.  Dr. Friedrich’s encouragement of this grant program is helping to revitalize our urban libraries in New Jersey by providing new professionals eager to work in this environment.

These successes occurred because of Dr. Friedrich’s openness and spirit of cooperation, coupled with his strong support of libraries.

We wish Dr. Friedrich a retirement as long and successful as his career has been.

 Rutgers School of Communication, Information and Library Studies and the SCILS Alumni Association are hosting a party honoring Dr. Friedrich on April 24, 2008, from 5:00-7:00PM, Brower Commons Faculty Dining Room, 145 College Ave., New Brunswick, NJ.

Please RSVP by April 17, 2008, using this invitation: http://www.scils.rutgers.edu/images/events/friedrichpartyinvitation.pdf