On February 14, 2020, the University Library honored Central European Studies Librarian Marek Sroka as the fourth Andrew S. G. Turyn Endowed Professor at an investiture.
Sroka’s previous and current research has focused on library and cultural history, including war losses of Polish and German libraries, Jewish libraries, recovery of displaced library collections, and post-World War II rehabilitation of Polish libraries in the context of Polish-American and Polish-British cultural relations.
The Andrew S. G. Turyn Endowed Professorship was established through a generous gift from the estate of former librarian and longtime Library Friend Andrew S. G. Turyn (B.S. ‘52, M.S. ‘62). Offered on a five-year rotating basis, it is open to full professors of library administration at the Urbana campus who are pursuing innovative research in any scholarly area, including library and information science; the humanities; the sciences; the social sciences; the arts; and other fields. The professorship enhances the Library’s services, programs, and reputation by recognizing and fostering significant research contributions of Library faculty.
The Turyn family legacy is documented at Illinois. The papers of Andrew Turyn’s parents, Felicia L. Turyn and Alexander Turyn, are located in the University Archives.