On November 26, 2011, Otis D. Alexander became the Director of the GPL. Alexander is the former library director of Southeastern University, a defunct tertiary school in Washington, D.C. that lost its accreditation and closed in 2009,[1] and the Danville Public Library System in Virginia.
He was the Associate Librarian at Cuttington University, an Anglican college in Monrovia, Liberia. Alexander was Head Librarian at the Frederiksted Branch for the U.S. Virgin Islands Division of Libraries, Museums, and Archaeological Services. He has also been a Public Services Librarian at Saint Paul’s College, though his biography neglects to mention which one.
As a lecturer in the Arts & Science Division at the Danville Community College in Danville, Virginia, he taught the courses “Controversial Issues in Contemporary American Culture,” and “Introduction to African-American Studies.” In addition, he has taught the courses “20th century American Poetry,” “Harlem Renaissance Literature,” “Children’s Literature,” and “Research Skills.”
Alexander, who is a classical musician and storyteller, earned the B.A. in Urban Studies and Music, and an MS in Media Science from the Federal City College (now the University of the District of Columbia). He also received a Library & Information Science (MLIS) degree from Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana. He studied at the Harvard Graduate School of Education Leadership Institute for Academic Librarians and Oberlin Conservatory of Music Institute for Voice Performance Pedagogy.
His doctorial dissertation at International University for Graduate Studies (IUGS)[2] in,“Public Library Services to Underrepresented Groups: Poor & Unemployed, Emphasizing Danville, Virginia” appeared in Public Library Quarterly, (Volume 27 Issue 2 2008, pages 111-133). The abstract of his dissertation reads, “This study attempts to fill a void in library public services research on initiatives to serve the poor and unemployed in the current climate of budgetary constraints. This study seeks to determine perceptions of librarians and library managers regarding the needs of, and need for services to, poor and unemployed library patrons. Following a review of the literature, the article compares funding for services to the poor and unemployed in Michigan and Virginia. The state of Virginia lags behind other states in offering special programs for the poor and unemployed. This study concludes by describing programs developed by the Danville Public Library in an attempt to offer creative and imaginative services for the poor and the unemployed in the Danville Community.”
He has also contributed book chapters and articles in Still Not Equal: Expanding Educational Opportunity in Society, Virginia Libraries, Scribner’s Encyclopedia of American Lives: The 1960s, African American National Biography, and ilovelibraries.org.
[1]Washington Post Staff Writer Daniel de Vise reported on March 6, 2010, the Graduate School had acquired Southeastern University’s name and had hired some of its faculty members (“Southeastern U. acquired by another school in D.C”). The Graduate School, which was founded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture in 1921, is not a degree-granting institution. It specializes in continuing education for U.S. Government workers.
[2]The IUGS campus is in Basseterre, St. Kitts (Saint Christopher Island) in the Federation of St. Kitts and Nevis, in the Leeward Islands, the northernmost islands in the Lesser Antilles in the West Indies.
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