State Librarian's Biography

Mary Wegner was named State Librarian in 2001, and prior to that served as Assistant State Librarian for one year.  Before

joining the State Library, she worked for more than 20 years as the director of the libraries at Iowa Methodist, Iowa Lutheran and Blank Children's hospitals in Des Moines.

Wegner was president of the Iowa Library Association in 1999.  She is a member of the board of trustees of the Bibliographical Center for Research, and is also on the Legislative Committee of COSLA, the Chief Officers of State Library Agencies.  She serves on WebJunction’s national E-learning Advisory Committee and the National Advisory Board for Wartburg College’s Vogel Library.

Wegner began her professional career as a reference librarian at the Waterloo Public Library.  She spent one session as a caucus staffer for the Iowa House of Representatives before joining the hospital library.

A native Iowan, Wegner has lived in eight Iowa communities.  She graduated from Iowa State University with a degree in history, and received her master's degree in library science from the University of Iowa.

State Library initiatives developed under Wegner’s tenure include the statewide availability of BSCOhost databases in Iowa school, public and academic libraries; development of Iowa School Library Program Guidelines following passage of legislation which requires Iowa school districts to employ teacher librarians; the Telling the Library Story tool kit (developed with Karen Burns, Southwest Iowa Library Services Area and Annette Wetteland, State Library); and the PLOW (Putting Libraries on the Web) program which provides websites for nearly 300 Iowa public libraries.