Her education reflects her varied interests: a B.A in Foreign Languages, concentrating in Spanish, from Fisk University, an M.S. in Guidance and Counseling, with a concentration in Organizational Counseling, from Tennessee State University, and an M.L.S. with a concentration in Special Libraries, from Peabody College at Vanderbilt University (all in Nashville, Tennessee). She has done graduate study in English, French and Spanish. Her avocation is research on the contributions of Afro-Hispanics to the civilization and culture of the world. Currently, she is researching Aaron Douglas, painter of the Harlem Renaissance and her former professor at Fisk and has begun research on art in what she refers to as the Caribbean Basin (Puerto Rico, Cuba, Hispaniola, Panama and Venezuela).
She is a member of the Fine Arts/Humanities Team at the University of Arizona Main Library where she is subject representative for Art and African American Studies.
Her hobbies include travel, cooking, reading (particularly histories, biographies and mysteries), and looking at old movies. Her cat, Sam, knows that he is the King of all he surveys, and does not hesitate to express his irritation when she leaves him for meetings such as this one, or bothers him by being underfoot over the weekend.
Karen Dalziel Tallman was born in Iowa and also has lived in Nova Scotia and Newfoundland, Canada, and in Maine, Florida and Arizona.
She has a B.A. degree in English from the University of Florida and a M.S. degree in Library Science from Florida State University.
Karen was a serials cataloger and Head of Serials Acquisitions at Iowa State University Library from 1978-1985. She was Head of the Serials Department at The University of Arizona from 1985-1993. She is currently a member of the Fine Arts/Humanities Team at the University of Arizona with subject area responsibilities in Classics; Comparative, Cultural & Literary Theory; Creative Writing; Gay & Lesbian Literature; and Poetry.
Karen has been a member of the Editorial Advisory Committee for American Libraries, and for the past three years served on the Editorial Board for the peer-reviewed journal, Library Acquisitions: Practice & Theory. She has published extensively. Most recently she was Editor of a Special Section: "Library Reorganization for the 21st Century" in the latest issue of Library Acquisitions: Practice & Theory.