Jim Nelson
Jim Nelson served as Kentucky State
Librarian and Commissioner of the Department for Libraries and Archives (KDLA)
for 26 years. Jim was also active with the Chief Officers of State
Library Agencies (COSLA), serving as Treasurer and chairing its Legislative
Committee. He was President of the Association of Specialized and
Cooperative Library Agencies in ALA and a longtime board member of the Kentucky
Library Association, receiving its "Lifetime Achievement Award,” the
highest award given by the association. During his tenure as State
Librarian, Jim served on, and chaired, the Kentucky Information Resources
Management Commission. He also served on the ConnectKentucky Steering
Committee, which dramatically expanded broadband communications in Kentucky
through a community-based model.
After
retirement, Jim was the Senior Library Consultant at Connected Nation, a
national broadband company based in Kentucky, during their work on a Bill and
Melinda Gates Foundation grant to help bring sustainable broadband technologies
to local public libraries in 26 states. Jim also served on, and chaired,
the Board of Directors for the Southeastern Library Network (SOLINET), the
largest regional library resource sharing network in the nation, serving over
2,500 libraries in 10 southeastern states and the Caribbean. Jim
received his MSLS from the University of Kentucky and later worked there and at
the University of Wisconsin. Jim received the Outstanding Alumnus Award
from the College of Library and Information Science at UK in 1985. He
currently serves on the National Advisory Board for the College of
Communication and Information at UK and was its first chair. In 2006, he
joined Global and was a founder of Global’s Kentucky Library Initiative.