Associate Professor Terry L. Weech has been awarded a Scroll of Appreciation by the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA) for "his distinguished contribution to IFLA and the library profession, especially in the internationalization of library and information science education." Weech received the honor at the closing session of the IFLA World Library and Information Congress on August 25 in Wroclaw, Poland.
His record of service to IFLA includes chairing the Division on Research and Education and the Section on Education and Training, and the Library Theory and Research Section, as well as co-chairing the Satellite Meeting Planning Committee for IFLA 2016. He has authored or co-authored numerous research reports for IFLA and lectured on librarianship and Library and Information Science education in more than twenty countries in Europe, Asia, Africa, and North and South America.
In the nearly forty years that Weech has taught at Illinois, he has worked closely with the University's Mortenson Center for International Library Programs, and he has received more than five Fulbright Senior Specialist and similar funded awards for international travel. In addition to the study of the future of education for library and information science, his research interests include the evaluation of information services and sources, government information access, library administration, library cooperation and networks, library use instruction, and the economics of information. His teaching experience includes appointments at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill; Emporia State University (Kansas); University of Iowa, Iowa City; and Mississippi University for Women in Columbus. At the iSchool, Weech teaches the Economics of Information course (IS 549), and the International Librarianship course (IS 585). In addition to IFLA, he has been active in the American Library Association (ALA), and he has been involved in the administration of the Robert B. Downs Intellectual Freedom Award reception at the ALA Midwinter meeting for nearly thirty-five years. Weech received his MS and PhD degrees in library and information science from the iSchool at Illinois.