Joseph M. Dagnese papers

Joseph M. Dagnese was born in Worcester, Massachusetts, on October 10, 1927, the son of Gennaro Francis and Carmella Veronica Martocci Dagnese.

He received his Bachelor of Arts degree in English Literature from Boston College in 1949. In 1951, he received his Master of Arts degree in English Literature and in 1952, a Masters of Science degree in Library Science from Catholic University of America. Additional graduate studies in German language and literature were completed at Heidelberg University in 1954-55. Returning to the United States in 1955, Mr. Dagnese became Assistant Head of the Cataloging Division of the Library at Catholic University. Before assuming the directorship at Purdue in 1972, he held a number of positions at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He also served as Documents Librarian with Nuclear Metals and was a library consultant at the Birla Institute of Technology and Science in Pilani, Rajasthan, India.

Mr. Dagnese served 17 years during a period of transition and expansion of the University, and at the time of his death on January 27, 1989, he was engaged in the implementation of a statewide library network for sharing library resources.

He served higher education nationally in various capacities, always pursuing excellence in education. Mr. Dagnese was President of the Special Libraries Association (SLA) in 1979-80., was a member of the Board of Directors of the Center for Research Libraries from 1981-84; was President of the Universal Serials Book Exchange in 1985, and completed several committee assignments for the Association of Research Libraries. He was elected a Fellow of SLA in 1987, and was serving as the SLA representative to the International Federation of Library Associations at the time of his death in 1989.