Northwest appoints Brady to lead Owens Library

Brandy Brady, a staff member at Northwest Missouri State University’s B.D. Owens Library since 2015, has assumed the role of director of library services and operations.

Brady’s appointment was effective Oct. 1, and she succeeds Dr. Ed Walton, who resigned from the position in June.

“Ms. Brady is a valued resource for our B.D. Owens Library,” said Dr. Jay Johnson, Northwest’s associate provost for academic operations and undergraduate studies. “Her depth of knowledge and years of experience will be a great asset in her new leadership role. I am very excited for her and am confident that she will do everything to ensure that Northwest will continue to have an outstanding library for our students, faculty, staff and community for many years to come.”

As the library director, Brady will provide strategic leadership in collaboration with Northwest’s academic units and in support of the University’s mission. She is responsible for directing the Owens Library’s state-of-the-art services and resources, in addition to managing, developing and directing programs and services that support and facilitate student learning and scholarly endeavors.

Brady joined the Owens Library staff as an electronic resource manager and advanced to roles as assistant library director for collection development and assistant library director for information services.

Additionally, she serves as an adjunct instructor for principles of management in the Melvin D. and Valorie G. Booth School of Business and provides library and digital literacy instruction for numerous courses across the University. She also has served as a University Seminar instructor and Upward Bound academic counselor.

Before beginning her employment at Northwest, she was the district librarian for the North Nodaway R-VI School District. 

Brady has a bachelor’s degree in personnel management and a Master of Business Administration degree with a human resource management emphasis, both from Northwest. She also has a master’s degree in library science from Clarion University in Pennsylvania.

“I’ve always loved libraries because it’s like solving a puzzle when you do research and find the right thing,” Brady said. She added, “I like the one-on-one connection with students and understanding where they are coming from. Knowing that helps me understand how to better support them from the library perspective.”

About the B.D. Owens Library

The B.D. Owens Library houses more than 123,000 books, documents and bound periodicals. Nearly 66,675 periodicals are available in electronic format, and over 330,000 eBooks are available through the popular EBSCOhost and Overdrive platforms.

The Owens Library also includes Novel Grounds, a coffee house-style seating and lounge area with a Starbucks, the Student Success Center, the Learning and Teaching Center, the Writing Center and the International Involvement Center.

For more information about the library or to search its resources, visit www.nwmissouri.edu/library or call 660.562.1193.