Dawn Dekle, president, American University of Nigeria

Our library contains the l argest digital holdings in Nigeria, and our students tap far and wide into it Dawn Dekle, PHD, was appointed President of American University of Nigeria (AUN) in July 2017. Prior to joining AUN, Dr. Dekle was President of Orkhon University in Mongolia, and President of American University of Iraq. She also served as Provost of the American University of Afghanistan, and as Dean of SP Jain School of Global Management in Singapore.

Before Dr. Dekle’s ascension to senior academic leadership positions, she was a faculty member at Singapore Management University, National University of Singapore, James Madison University and Dartmouth College. Outside of academia, Dr. Dekle was also a Council

Member for the Singapore Institute of International Affairs, and Leadership Specialist and Global Knowledge Manager at Mckinsey & Company.

Dr. Dekle earned degrees from Stanford University (JD), Dartmouth College (PHD) and Texas A& M University ( BS). Outside work, she enjoys volunteering at refugee camps and animal shelters, bird watching, following Zinedine Zidane’s transition from football player to coach, collecting Starbucks coffee mugs, vegetarian cooking, reading historical biographies, and imagining the future. What are you reading currently?

Educated, by Tara Westover; and Russian Roulette, by Michael Isikoff

Eagerly awaiting the release of The Body, by Bill Bryson – the next book on my list to read What informs your choice of a book to read?

New York Times Review of Books, Booker Prize finalists, recommendations of friends and colleagues, what students are reading, and sometimes just wandering around a bookstore… Which books would you rate as the Top 5 or Top Ten in your reading experience?

Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World, by Jack Weatherford

Disgrace, by JM Coetzee Angela’s Ashes, by Frank

Mccourt

Silent Spring, by Rachel Carson

The Kite Runner, by Khaled Hosseini

Memoirs of a Geisha, by Arthur Golden

The Last Girl, by Nadia Murad

Leonardo da Vinci, by Walter Isaacson

Seabiscuit, by Laura Hillenbrand

Life of Pi, by Yann Martel Americanah, by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie What books would you return to again and again?

Animal Farm, by George Orwell

The Little Prince, by Antoine de Saint-exupery The Greatest Salesman in the World, by Og Mandino Reverence for Life, by Albert Schweitzer

The Beginner’s Mind, by Shunryu Suzuki

One More Day Everywhere, by Glen Heggstad Atlas Obscura, by Joshua Foer Which 10 books would you consider essential or critical in your profession or line of business?

The Social Animal, by Elliot Aronson

Outliers, by Malcolm Gladwell

Leadership Without Easy Answers, by Ronald Heifetz

Immunity to Change, by Robert Kegan

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, by Stephen R Covey

The Paradox of Choice, by Barry Schwartz

The Infinite Game, by Simon Sinek

Question 6: Please suggest five essential books in your field and five general interest books that are must-reads for young people?

Essential books:

Walden Two, by B.F. Skinner

The Hero with a Thousand Faces, by Joseph Campbell To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee

The Blank Slate, by Steven Pinker

Flourish, by Martin Seligman

General Interest:

How to Read a Book, by Mortimer Adler

Flatland, by Edwin Abbott A Short History of Nearly Everything, by Bill Bryson Inherit the Wind (play), by Jerome Lawrence Ishmael, by Daniel Quinn Do you play any direct role in the equipment of the library of your academic institution given the importance of libraries in education?

The University Librarian is a principal officer of the university, with faculty rank. I work closely with the Librarian to ensure the equipment of our library is maintained and meets our learning community’s needs. How do you progress the process of knowledge production in your institution as vice chancellor?

We have a Library Com

mittee at our university, and the group is responsible for acquisitions and recommendations for ensuring our physical holdings and digital collections remain relevant. We also catalog all of our faculty publications and books. What steps have you taken as VC to ensure your institution plays a significant role in knowledge production through book writing and publishing?

We provide support for research activities, including grant and proposal writing for external funding, and conference attendance, all of which helps our resident faculty members pursue their scholarship interests, which includes books and articles. How many books have scholars here published?

Many – and we have new books coming out each year. Recently, our faculty member, Mahamadou Lamine Sagna, published a book, Cornel

West Matters, and just completed a very successful book tour in the USA, including a visit to Harvard University, and our alum, English Language and Literature major, Victoria Toluwase Ifeolu, just published her first novella, Flying Pythons, available on Amazon. Do you prefer hard copy or digital texts?

I am old school – I prefer hard copy. Digital is missing the feel and the weight of the book in your hands, the smell of the paper, the ink on your hands, all of the tactile

stimuli that come with holding a physical book. What are the significant differences and appeal of each in your view?

The appeal of digital is storage – you can take your library anywhere with you, anytime, and you can search it. The appeal of hard copy is the serendipity of discovering something by flipping pages with your fingers, and being able to give a book as a physical gift and writing an inscription in your own handwriting inside.

Conventional wisdom says young people today are mainly on to digital for reading What have you done to ensure they get the full benefits of reading while on digital?

I am not aware of any studies that definitively demonstrate that learning from digital formats is inferior to learning from traditional physical books. Whether digital or traditional, the key factor seems to be the right

teacher. Do you share the notion that young Nigerians do not read? What do the records from your library and interaction with your students show?

I think knowledge acquisition is evolving – young Nigerians do read, but they also listen to podcasts, which are very educational. The podcast that accompanied the recent television series Chernobyl was phenomenal, as was the podcast that accompanied the book Bad Blood, about Elizabeth Holmes, added

significant understanding to the story. My favorite weekly podcasts are Freakonomics, hosted by Stephen J Dubner, and Revisionist History, hosted by Malcolm Gladwell. Our library contains the largest digital holdings in Nigeria, and records indicate our students tap far and wide into it. Who are your all-time favorite authors?

Bill Bryson, Tom Friedman, David Brooks, Walter Isaacson, Laura Hillenbrand, JM Coetzee, Yann Martel, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Paul Theroux, VS Naipaul, Karen Blixen, W Somerset Maugham, Graham Greene,

Question 17: Any thoughts on reading generally and what it contributes to readers?

Reading generally improves vocabulary and opens the mind to other perspectives. As Franz Kafka said, ‘A book must be the axe for the frozen sea within us.’