Library Professor of Documents and Maps Honored as Full Professor

As part of the Inaugural Professor Lecture Series at Utah State University, John Walters, professor of documents and maps for University Libraries, was honored March 30 at the President’s home by President Stan Albrecht and family, friends and colleagues for his recent promotion to full professor.

 

In his lecture, Walters discussed his published book U.S. Government Publication: Ideological Development and Institutional Politics from the Founding to 1970.

 

Walters said the book examines the forces that historically have undermined the production, distribution and preservation of U.S. public documents. 

 

“John’s writing skills are very strong, but more important, his research is serious, professional, and he has made a unique contribution to our field,” said John Elsweiler, associated director for library administration. “John is considered the national expert in government publishing history.”

 

Walters’s book will soon be published by Scarecrow Press. He has actively pursued manipulating federal data into GIS software to track trends and plot consumer models. His efforts have assisted countless agriculture, business, sociology and natural resources students in their class assignments said Elsweiler.

 

“Documents librarians across the country consider John a leader in electronic census data and GIS technology — it is no exaggeration to say that he has done more with mapping than almost any other documents librarian in the country,” said a contemporary of Walters’ GIS work.

 

“I choose the field of work I am in so I can help students with writing and research,” said Walters.