Message from the Interim Dean

We are only a few weeks away from the start of the fall semester. Campus is quiet except for groups of eager students and their parents. I am grateful to share positive news and my own excitement for the coming academic year.

Earlier this summer, we announced in WSU Insider that the WSU Office of the Provost will provide an additional $240,000 for us to keep our open access (OA) Wiley agreement. This will allow WSU researchers to publish their work in more than 1,400 scholarly journals without individual article processing charges. OA publications allow readers worldwide to access WSU-authored research articles without subscriptions or paywalls, supporting greater visibility and real-world application of university scholarship.

Since we renewed our Wiley agreement last winter, WSU researchers have published 64 articles with OA fees waived, saving $237,910. In 2025 alone, WSU students and faculty downloaded over 150,000 articles from journals published by Wiley, and OA articles in Wiley journals represent more than 40 percent of all article downloads (up from 26 percent in 2024).

Unfortunately, to balance our collections budget, we did make difficult and significant reductions to other subscriptions. However, amidst these cuts whenever possible, we resubscribed to the most highly used journals in the collections we cancelled.

Walking through the Holland and Terrell Libraries this week reminded me that we are preparing for big renovations for the upcoming year. On the Terrell first-floor level next to the Information Desk, we are creating a new collaborative space, the Cougar Commons, where we will partner with the WSU Academic Success and Career Center to provide students with tutoring support in various subjects. Libraries building coordinator Alan Fey is overseeing the dismantling and moving of furniture, graphic designer Amy Grey is designing beautiful new signage and window decals, and first-year experience librarian Erica England is working closely with our partners. I am super excited to see this space transition and to know that undergraduates will discover that the library is the place to go for their academic success.

Across the Terrell atrium in the Quiet Study Lounge, we are replacing a large, bulky series of carousels with flexible furniture, including chairs with wheels and rotating desks that accommodate both right- and left-handed scholars.

Down one floor on the Terrell ground level, WSU arts assistant professor Mei Lin is painting her mural of sisters Vanessa Bell and Virginia Woolf that will celebrate their collaboration on Woolf’s novels. (Bell designed many of Woolf’s iconic dust jackets.) This mural is part of a focused effort to create inspiring spaces throughout the libraries and to highlight the outstanding collections we hold. In this case, it’s Virginia and Leonard Woolf’s personal library of more than 9,900 books they owned. I want to thank a generous supporter of the arts and former library colleague, Nancy Spitzer, for her donation of paint and supplies for the mural.

A floor below the mural, in the Terrell basement, we welcome a new partner this fall. The WSU Disabled Student Center will move from the Washington Building to a much more accessible and centrally located space. We are excited to work with DSC coordinator Maddie Joyce and the WSU Student Affairs team on this partnership and a second phase where we will collaborate on bringing WSU Student Accommodations and Disability Resources into the libraries. Together we will create new, inviting spaces for students and ensure that critical services for student success have room for expansion. Our partnership will also seek to make spaces such as quiet study rooms available to all students during our busiest times in the evenings.

This issue of Browse features exciting news from the WSU Press that 51 authors (or their heirs) waived royalty payments on 2024 sales of their books. This is one step in helping the WSU Press reduce costs and staff time to make its operations more sustainable.

We are also celebrating longtime artist Keiko Hara for her receipt of the 2025 Twining Humber Award from the Artist Trust. Hara’s four decades of creative work is the subject of a beautiful WSU Press volume authored by Linda Tesner and Ryan Hardesty of the WSU Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art.

Tenure and promotion are critical milestones for WSU faculty representing, most commonly, outstanding achievements in teaching, research, and service. For tenure-track librarians, our appointments include a distribution of 70 percent primary duties, 20 percent scholarship, and 10 percent service. This year two librarians, Sam Lohmann and David Luftig, achieved this distinction. The newsletter profile describes their important contributions both to the libraries and the campus community.

Wishing you a wonderful last few weeks of summer. Please share this issue of Browse with your family and friends, and do let me know if you would like to be added to our distribution list.

Trevor