Candidates hoping to become Sacramento State?s new library dean interviewed with a university search committee that will soon forward its hiring recommendation to President Donald Gerth.

A 9-member committee comprised of administrators, faculty and students reviewed resumes and drew down the pool of candidates to the final four, then interviewed them between Jan. 30 to Feb. 6.

The candidates included:

Sohair W. Elbaz, Dean of libraries for the Paul V. Galvin Library at the Illinois Institute of Technology. He holds a doctorate in library information management from Simmons College in Boston.

Paul V. Rao, Dean of library services at Central Missouri State University. Rao has received a doctorate in educational media from Southern Illinois University.

Terry D. Webb has a doctorate in cultural anthropology from Arizona State University and a master?s degree in library science from the University of Arizona.

Tamara Frost Trujillo is the acting dean of the Sac State library. She earned a master’s in English literature from Texas A&M and library science from the University of Denver.

Sac State followed a standard screening process in selecting the final candidates that includes a statement of willingness to work with diverse groups according to David Wagner, dean of Faculty and Staff Affairs.

The previous library dean, Patricia Larsen, resigned her post last year after she made controversial remarks regarding Japanese-Americans delivered a speech.

The four candidates to replace former library dean Patricia Larsen have all finished informal conversations with the search advisory committee and now await their final decision.

The search committee will meet with Ric Brown, Vice President for academic affairs, before forwarding their recommendation to president Gerth. The final decision on the replacement is his.

“We hope to have this wrapped up in the next two weeks,” Brown said.