The Springfield-Greene County Library District announced Wednesday that Dr. Edward Walton will begin serving as the new executive director beginning July 8.
According to a library news release, Walton is currently director of library services and operations at Northwest Missouri State University. Earlier, he served as dean of university libraries and professor of library services at Southwest Baptist University.
Walton has 40 years of library experience, among them 23 years as an administrator for libraries at public and private academic institutions. He also worked for 10 years in public library service and 10 years in corporate library service.
Walton is also known as a former president of the MOBIUS Consortium Board of Directors. The MOBIUS Consortium is a network of libraries that shares resources including inter-library book checkouts for patrons.
Walton received his doctorate of education from Union University, a master's in library science from the University of North Texas and a bachelor's degree in religion from Dallas Baptist University.
Library board president Rachael Morrow said in a written statement that the board is "delighted" to hire Walton and that he is "a natural consensus-builder."
The Springfield-Greene County Library sports 10 branches in its city and county service area. According to the most recent annual report by the library, the district has roughly 1.1 million library user visits each year, some 220 employees and an $18.4 million budget.
