YOUNGSTOWN University appoints director for library

The new director is a Mc-Keesport, Pa., native.
YOUNGSTOWN -- Paul Kobulnicky, vice chancellor for information services and chief information officer at the University of Connecticut, has been named executive director of Youngstown State University's Maag Library.
He starts July 1 to succeed Thomas Atwood, who left YSU in August 2002 to become director and chief medical librarian at the Oliver Ocasek Regional Medical Information Center at the Northeastern Ohio Universities College of Medicine. Janice Schnall has been Maag interim director since.
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Kobulnicky was director of libraries at the University of Connecticut from 1994 to 1999 before being appointed to his current post. He previously was interim director of the university library system at the University of Pittsburgh.
"I am excited to join an institution that is clearly on the rise in higher education," Kobulnicky said. "My goal will be to ensure that the Maag Library continues to be counted as one of YSU's exemplary units."
A native of McKeesport, Pa., Kobulnicky said he also is looking forward to returning to "a community that exemplifies the values of industry and care for others that I was taught."
Tom Shipka, chairman of YSU's philosophy and religious studies department, headed the search committee for the position.
Kobulnicky earned a bachelor of science degree from Pennsylvania State University in 1969 and a master's in administration and systems analysis in 1972 from the University of Pittsburgh.
The new YSU Maag Library director is affiliated with many professional organizations, including the American Library Association, Library Administration and Management Association and the Coalition for Networked Information.
About the library
Maag Library has more than 630,000 books, 900,000 microforms and 130,000 bound journals. Kobulnicky said libraries continue to play a critical role in higher education.
"There is no great university that does not have a great library," he said. "They go hand in hand. Whether we are students solving problems in the classroom or citizens solving problems in the community or at the workplace, the best solutions are those derived by successfully selecting, analyzing and utilizing information."