For immediate useNov. 13, 1997--No. 848

Local angle: Bennettsville, S.C.

Information, library science school names Shaw to first endowed professorship

By JANICE DAQUILA-PARDO
UNC-CH School of Information and Library Science

CHAPEL HILL-- Dr. William M. Shaw Jr. has been named the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Information and Library Science's first Frances Carroll McColl Professor.

This new appointment, the school's first endowed professorship, is funded by $250,000 from Hugh L. McColl, Jr., UNC-CH alumnus and chief executive officer of Charlotte-based NationsBank Corp. The gift honors the memory of McColl's late mother and late sister, Frances Carroll McColl and Frances McColl Covington. McColl said the school's needs and his mother's love of literature inspired him to set up the fund.

“My mother taught everyone in the family to love books, and we have prospered from having access to them and, perhaps more important, knowing where to turn to find the information we need,” he said. Recalling hours his mother spent reading to her four children in Bennettsville, S.C., McColl said, “I think we were educated far beyond my school system.”

A School of Information and Library Science selection committee chose Shaw based on his contributions to research, teaching and service to the school, the university and the information professions. Committee members included school dean Dr. Barbara Moran, other members of the school's faculty and members of the school's administrative board.

“Bill Shaw excels in all the areas that the McColl award highlights: research, teaching and service,” said Moran. “He is distinguished in all that he does and has been of great service to the school.”

A full professor since 1987, Shaw joined the faculty in 1983. From 1974 until 1983, he was with the Matthew A. Baxter School of Information and Library Science at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, as research and systems librarian, then as assistant professor and associate professor.

Shaw's teaching and research focus on areas of cluster analysis in classification, retrieval and communication; information retrieval, interactive retrieval and relevance feedback; scholarly communication; library effectiveness; and methods for information and library science research.

Shaw earned a master's in library science from Case Western Reserve in 1974. He had received a master's degree (1967) and a doctorate (1971) in physics from the University of Missouri-Columbia, followed by a postdoctoral appointment in physics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. His bachelor's degree in physics and mathematics came from William Jewell College in Liberty, Mo., in 1965.

“I am pleased to be named the first McColl professor,” Shaw said. “The McColl term professorship is a wonderful gift to the school. It will provide opportunities not otherwise available to many talented faculty members and their students in the years to come.”

The McColl professorship award will be granted biennially. Each term will last two years. A portion of the award will supplement the faculty member's salary; the balance will support research, teaching and service. All full-time tenured faculty who have demonstrated significant contributions in research, teaching and service are eligible.

Hugh McColl Jr. graduated from UNC-CH's business school in 1957 and served two years in the Marines. He began his career with N.C. National Bank in Charlotte as a management trainee. He rose to loan officer, vice president, president, then chief executive officer in 1983. In 1991, McColl engineered the merger of NCNB and C&S/Sovran to form NationsBank, one of the country's largest banks.

In September, McColl was honored for his contributions to UNC-CH when the new building of the Kenan-Flagler Business School was named for him. He is a member of the business school's board of visitors and a trustee of the Frank Hawkins Kenan Institute of Private Enterprise at UNC-CH.

McColl was national co-chairman of the steering committee for UNC-CH's Bicentennial Campaign for Carolina, concluded in 1995, the largest fund-raising effort in university history. In that campaign, McColl and his wife, Jane Spratt McColl, established the McColl professorship and designated major gifts for other areas of the university.

The UNC-CH School of Information and Library Science is home to approximately 250 graduate students, 60 undergraduates and 19 full-time faculty members. It prepares students to work with computer information systems and networks or for careers in library administration, acquisitions, collections management and other aspects of library work. The school offers master's degrees in information science and library science, a certificate of advanced study, a doctor of philosophy in information and library science and an undergraduate minor in information systems.

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School of Information and Library Science contact: Janice Daquila-Pardo, 962-7024

News Services contact: Laura J. Toler