Valeda F. DentDr. Valeda Dent is currently Dean and Chief Operating Officer for the Long Island University Libraries in New York. She previously served as Associate University Librarian for Research and Instructional Services at Rutgers University, and as Project irector for the eLib/JISC MALIBU digital library project in London, United Kingdom. She holds an M.S.W. and M.I.L.S. from the University of Michigan and a Ph.D. from the Palmer School at Long Island University. Her research interests include information literacy, rural libraries in Africa and related literacy and reading habits, and ethnographic approaches to understanding the user experience. She has published two books, Keeping the User in Mind: Instructional Design and the Modern Library (2009) and Qualitative Research and the Modern Library (2011). She is the author of numerous articles, and has been published in journals such as Library Hi Tech , New Library World , Libri , and Oral Traditions . Valeda’s longitudinal research on rural village libraries in Uganda and elsewhere in Africa has spanned more than eight years. Valeda and her husband, Dr. Geoff Goodman, have been selected as Fulbright Scholars for 2014 and will spend almost a year in Uganda continuing their study of the rural village library. In her spare time, Valeda enjoys spending time with her husband and daughter Carlyn. Read More Read Less