Sara Bushong is the new dean of the Bowling Green University Libraries.
The appointment was effective Monday and announced to the campus this morning by Provost Kenneth Borland.

Bushong’s salary as dean will be $152,000.
"We feel so good. Sara is exactly the person the library needs," Dr. Paul Stiffler, president
of the University Libraries Advocates Board, said this morning.
"She has such a wonderful rapport with the staff and ability to motivate the staff. She keeps the
advocates informed on what is going on and how we can help."
Bushong said this morning she was "very thrilled to be able to serve BGSU and I look forward to this
opportunity."
Among her first efforts will be working with the university’s enrollment services to develop the Learning
Commons approved last Friday by the BGSU Trustees. A portion of the first floor will be dedicated to
tutoring and related services designed to help students succeed.
"A library is a very important student resource for academic success," she said.
Bushong said the university needs a strong library and knows a lot of attention will be spent on updating
the aging Jerome Library, which opened in the late 1960s.
"Students still value a library. They feel a need to study among the books," she said.
"Not everything can be found on the Internet. A lot of authoritative scholarly research can only be
found in the library."
Bushong served as interim library dean before the appointment last year of Kay Flowers as dean. Flowers
left the BGSU staff last month.
Stiffler said the advocates strongly favored promoting Bushong from interim to permanent before Flowers
was hired. He said Bushong is very much in touch with what the library needs.
"With Sara the library can really start moving ahead. She has such a strong team and is so committed
to the library," Stiffler said.
Borland acknowledged this morning that Bushong had "tremendous support" for her leadership from
the library staff, Friends of the University Libraries Board and the advocates.
"Rather than a national search this was a perfect fit. There is a lot of confidence in her
experience. At the library she is seen as a leader and a colleague. In the interim period, she did
outstanding work," Borland said.
"I’m honored that the university libraries have been supportive. They are very good people,"
Bushong said.
Bushong has been a member of the library faculty since 2000 and has served as interim and associate dean
and chairperson of the Archival Collections and Branches. She joined the faculty as head librarian of
the Curriculum Resource Center and also teaches undergraduate and graduate courses for the School of
Teaching and Learning.
She earned a bachelor of music education degree and a master of education degree in library and
educational media from BGSU, as well as a master of library science degree from Kent State University.