Sarah J. Hooke is a library administrator and lawyer who serves as Dean of the Henry Whittemore Library at Framingham State University. She received a Bachelor of Arts in Anthropology and a Master of Library and Information Science from the University of Maine. She earned a Doctor of Law (J.D.) from the University of Maine School of Law.
Dean Hooke has nearly 30 years of experience in academic library leadership. She was the founding Director of two legal libraries at the Massachusetts School of Law and Florida International University, where she developed strategic plans and helped build them from the ground up. Ms. Hooke taught and served for 16 years in library leadership roles (Assistant and Associate Dean) at the Northeastern School of Law. She served as President of NELLCO, the world’s largest law library consortium, and on the Board of Directors for the Massachusetts Library System. She knows all facets of library administration, including designing efficient and effective workflow, procedures, facilities management, and technology infrastructure.
As an attorney, she was legal counsel to the Maine Legislature and to Maine and Massachusetts agencies, and was admitted to the Bar in Maine and Massachusetts.
Dean Hooke’s vision is that the Whittemore Library should actively reach out to the entire University Community to support teaching, learning, research, academic life and community-building, as well as to the MetroWest region. Libraries are no longer solely static physical buildings and collections. They should actively prioritize community engagement over simple information delivery and serve as essential “third places” as well as protectors of civic engagement and First Amendment freedoms.
