General Dr. Richard Saunders is an academic librarian and former Dean of Library Services at Southern Utah University. A graduate of Utah State University, he holds a library degree from Brigham Young University and a PhD from the University of Memphis with an emphasis on the social history of recent America, and is professionally accredited by the Academy of Certified Archivists. His professional work experience includes service at the Utah State Historical Society, Montana State University, in the production side of commercial publishing, and at the University of Tennessee at Martin. Though a professional librarian, he has conducted historical research across the US and published widely, on Yellowstone literature, early Utah printing, Montana history, the work of historian Dale L. Morgan, Tennessee novelist Harry Kroll, and the civil rights movement in the rural South during the 1950s and 60s. History Dr. Richard Saunders is an academic librarian and former Dean of Library Services at Southern Utah University. A graduate of Utah State University, he holds graduate degrees in history from USU and the University of Memphis. His career in history has centered on preserving the sources of history as a Certified Archivist and special collections librarian, but he has also researched, written, and published widely in historical topics including Yellowstone, the American West, Mormons, American popular literature, and the US civil rights movement. His biography of Utah native and historian of western America Dale L. Morgan was named a Finalist in 2024 for the Evans Biography Prize. He is currently at work on a study of post-war social and economic change in the rural South, focusing on several counties in West Tennessee. Library Dr. Richard Saunders is the former Dean of Library Services at Southern Utah University and has been an archivist and librarian since the days of typewriters and ARPAnet. He holds a library degree from Brigham Young University, one of the library-school casualties of the 1990s, a PhD in History from the University of Memphis, and has been a member of the Academy of Certified Archivists since 1992. Since 1988 he has worked as an archivist or librarian at the Utah State Historical Society, Montana State University, University of Tennessee at Martin, and Southern Utah University where he was dean from 2014 to 2018. Dr. Saunders currently serves as the editor of RBM, ACRL’s journal of special collections librarianship. Printing Dr. Richard Saunders, academic librarian and former Dean of Library Services at Southern Utah University, has been a student of printing, type, and publishing for over two decades. Informed by activity as an amateur handset printer and craft bookbinder, his scope of interest includes industrial-scale papermaking, typography, printing, and both historical and descriptive bibliography. He worked professionally in the production side of commercial publishing in the 1990s during the industry’s transition from filmsetting to direct-to-plate technology. Dr. Saunders has guest-lectured to college students and the public in classes and at symposia at institutions including Brigham Young University and the University of Tennessee. His professional output includes Printing in Deseret: Mormons, Politics, Economics, and Utah’s Incunabula, 1849–1851 (Univ. of Utah Press, 2000), and Reams in the Desert: Papermaking in Utah, 1849–1893 (Legacy Press, 2021). These comments made as part of the podcast reflect the views of the episode participants only and should not be construed as official university statements.
