Herold to retire, August 2026
Dear Colleagues:
After an exemplary career in higher education, Dr. Irene M. H. Herold, dean of the VCU Libraries and University Librarian, has announced her decision to retire, effective August 1, 2026.
Since joining VCU in 2021, Dr. Herold has led a high‑performing team dedicated to advancing student and faculty success. Her accomplishments include expanding Open Educational Resources (OER) to reduce textbook costs and championing VCU Publishing to support the scholarly work of students and faculty. She also established a competitive donor-funded award enabling students to attend the nation’s premier library conference, providing unparalleled opportunities to engage with librarians, authors and leaders in the field. In addition, she created a summer-long donor-funded Book Art Residency that offers students intensive artistic development, research experience and technical training under the mentorship of a practicing book artist. Most recently, she oversaw the development of a conceptual design for expanded Special Collections and Archives space on Cabell Library’s fourth floor, positioning the Libraries for future growth.
Herold’s library career spans more than 30 years and includes leadership roles at several university libraries, including the College of Wooster; the University of Hawaii at Manoa; Keene State College; Daniel Webster College; and Monmouth College. She is an active member of the Association of Research Libraries (ARL) and the Association of Southeastern Research Libraries (ASERL), having served as an elected board member of the latter association from 2023-2025. She served as a nationally elected board member (2011-2015) and then as president (2015-2018) of the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL), a division of the American Library Association.
Herold earned her doctorate from the Graduate School of Library and Information Science at Simmons College; a master’s degree in history from Western Illinois University; and both a master’s degree in librarianship and a bachelor’s degree in English from the University of Washington. Herold is the author of two books, Leading Together: Academic Library Consortia and Advocacy and Creating Leaders: An Examination of Academic and Research Libraries Leadership Institutes, as well as numerous journal articles and book chapters on academic libraries and library leadership.
A national search for a new leader for VCU Libraries will be shared in the coming weeks. I want to take this opportunity to be the first to thank Dr. Herold for her incredible work at the forefront of VCU Libraries’ continued positive growth.
Warm Regards,
Art Saavedra, M.D., Ph.D. MBA
Interim executive vice president and provost