SMSU’s Librarian Gladis named Cowan winner

Southwest Minnesota State University Librarian Pam Gladis has been named winner of the prestigious Cathy Cowan Award for 2020.
The award is named for late psychology professor, Cathy Cowan, who died in an automobile accident on Dec. 22, 2001.
Gladis, a 1995 SMSU graduate, was the distance learning librarian from 1999-2001. She left for a time, and was the librarian for Marshall Public Schools and, later, Minnesota West Community and Technical College, before returning to SMSU as the web services/instruction librarian in 2012. She became SMSU Librarian in 2015.
“I love my job; I love this University,” said Gladis, who signed the institution’s 25th anniversary charter as a student, and its 50th anniversary charter as an employee.
Gladis took a first-year psychology class from Cowan as a freshman, and remembers her as a tough, fair instructor.
“I got a B, and I wasn’t used to getting a B,” said Gladis, an Alvord, Iowa native. “I talked to her and told her I didn’t think I did very well. She disagreed, and encouraged me to take another psychology course.”
Gladis has systematically transformed the library space, and its operations, over the years. 
“So many materials are moving to an online format, and what the students are doing now is increasingly through computers and not so much (the library’s) physical resources,” she said. “We’ve made changes to accommodate student use — more work group areas for collaboration, and we’ve reduced the size of our print collection to make more inviting areas for students to study. 
The criteria for consideration for the Cowan Award places an equal emphasis on both campus and community involvement.
On campus, Gladis serves on many committees, including Liberal Education, Graduate Council, Strategic Planning and Institutional Assessment, among others. She has been the department chair of the McFarland Library since 2015, and is on the Mustang Booster Club Executive Committee.
She is also involved with, and holds leadership positions in, statewide library groups, including the MnPALS consortium, its Governance Structure Task Force, and the Minitex Policy Advisory Committee.
On a community level, Gladis has served three, three-year terms on the Marshall-Lyon County Library Board, and was president her final term. She’s served on the Plum Creek Regional Library System’s Governing Board, and is a member of the Lyon County Historical Society.
Gladis also initiated, and serves as editor, for the new undergraduate research journal Discovery, which will give students a publishing experience. The inaugural issue is this spring/summer.
Gladis and her husband, Jeff, have two daughters; Brooklyn and Bellamy.