10th Anniversary

February marks Mary Jean Thomason’s 10th anniversary as director of the Samford University Library.

Thomason, who has a master of library science degree from the University of Alabama, led the effort in the late 1990s to turn the Samford library upside down in a major $6 million renovation and restructuring project. In 1999, the American School & University Educational Interiors Showcase honored Samford with a Gold Citation Award for Excellence in Educational Design.

The Samford library renovation was among the top four projects profiled in the August 1999 issue of the publication.

As part of her research, Thomason wrote the article “Revitalization of Library Service” in the book “Pursuit of Quality in Higher Education: Case Studies in Total Quality Management” in the summer of 1993. In the fall of that year, she co-wrote “Turning the Library Upside Down: Reorganization Using Total Quality Management Principles” in Journal of Academic Librarianship.

Thomason has a bachelor of science degree from Samford and a master of religious education degree from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas.