User:Meho1968

Lokman I. Meho was born in Beirut in 1968 and lived there until 1995. He attended the American University of Beirut (AUB) thanks to financial aid from the Hariri Foundation. After majoring for three years in agriculture, he transferred to political studies and completed the B.A. degree in 1991. In 1992, he enrolled in the master's program in political studies with full scholarship from AUB and completed the degree in December 1995. He then left to the U.S. to pursue advanced studies in librarianship.

His interest in librarianship grew out of fascination for books and reading and dream of developing a large library on Kurdish literature. He started working at the AUB Libraries from his very first college day until he graduated in December 1995. His work at AUB Libraries and the experience, skills, and knowledge he gained there were turning points in his life and career. While completing his master degree in political studies, he was encouraged by reference librarians at AUB to pursue a master degree in library science in the U.S. Neither he nor his parents were able to afford paying for his education in the U.S. When attempts to secure funding from friends, relatives, and organizations failed, his father decided to provide all of his savings (a mere $14,000) to send him to graduate school in the U.S. It was not an easy decision to make or agree with, especially because, with his little income and unstable job as well as lack of other financial resources, his father still had to support the rest of the family. Meho was accepted at five different library and information science schools. He decided to attend North Carolina Central University (NCCU) because it was the most affordable and because of its location in the Research Triangle Park--home of Duke, UNC, and NC State.

Meho started the MLS program at NCCU in January 1996. After completing the degree in two semesters, he felt he needed to learn more before returning to Lebanon and hopefully work at AUB Libraries. Having no money left to pay for rent and food, he asked the Dean of the Library School at NCCU, Professor Benjamin Speller, if he could teach in return for allowing him to take an additional course and receive a stipend to cover living expenses. Luckily, the Dean agreed. While teaching, Meho was encouraged by faculty members at NCCU to pursue a doctoral degree at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC). A few weeks after he applied, Meho was offered admission with 50% scholarship and a condition that he shows evidence that he has enough money in the bank to support himself in the next three years. It was only thanks to the Assistant Dean at NCCU, Mr. Duane Bogenschneider, that Meho was able to attend the doctoral program at UNC. Duane voluntarily decided to sponsor Meho at UNC in case he needed any financial support. After doing well during his first year, UNC offered Meho full scholarship in his second, third, and fourth/last year in the doctoral program. While studying at UNC, Meho continued to teach and do research. Before completing the doctoral degree, he accepted in April 2001 a faculty position at the School of Information Science and Policy of the University at Albany, State University of New York. Later that year, he successfully defended his dissertation and received the Ph.D. degree in December.

After three years as Assistant Professor at Albany, Meho decided to join the School of Library and Information Science at Indiana University-Bloomington where he became a tenured Associate Professor in 2008. In 2008, Meho got married to Ms. Chahnaz Ali, who at the time was working as a biomedical Engineer at Rafic Hariri University Hospital. During the summer of 2009, Meho was informed by librarians at AUB that the University Librarian position became vacant. In August 2009, Meho was offered the job, received the U.S. citizenship, and returned to Lebanon. On August 1, 2010, Jomerd (meaning gentleman in Kurdish) was born and on August 31, 2011 Roni (meaning daylight) was born.