Greetings colleagues,

 

The position of Head Librarian for the new Ute and Bill Bowes Art & Architecture Library is now posted on several job sites. As you might expect this position requires strong subject competence in the history of art, architecture, and design, successful collection development experience, demonstrated leadership, supervisory, and management skills, and so on. The full details are posted on the Stanford University Libraries Employment Opportunities job page. I will continue on the staff of the Bowes Library in the new position of “Senior Librarian” and will report to the new Head.

 

After six years at The Art Institute of Chicago's Ryerson & Burnham Libraries I returned to Stanford University in December 2005 to once again serve as Alex Ross's assistant. Over the next year and half he and I prepared for the transition from Alex’s three plus decades of stellar leadership to my tenure as Head, which began in May 2007. While I have enjoyed the challenges of that position the last eight and a half years, including the close participation in the eight year planning, design, and move process that brought us into the new McMurtry building, my organization and I feel that this is an excellent moment to once again transition to new leadership. 

 

I have taken on a new role as Senior Librarian here at our wonderful new facility. My position as Senior Librarian will allow me to much more fully engage in the curatorial endeavors that I returned to Stanford to pursue back in 2005. My primary responsibilities are to build on our outstanding collections of open stack and Locked Stack materials, to facilitate the acquisition of related archive and manuscript collections for SUL's Special Collections (such as the Carolee Schneemann, Gyorgy Kepes, Gerd Stern/USCO, Nazraeli Press, Helen & Newton Harrison, "!W.A.R. : !Women. Art. Revolution!", the Visual Studies Workshop collection, etc.), and perhaps most importantly, to work even more closely with faculty and students in the classroom, the Library, and our exhibition program. While our search for a new Head progresses, Matt Marostica, SUL's Interim Associate University Librarian for Public Services, is serving as interim Head of the Bowes Library and has assumed several administrative duties.

 

The Head Librarian position provides an outstanding opportunity in our profession. I am attending the Seattle conference and will make myself available to respond to enquiries regarding this posting. My contact information is below and I would be delighted to entertain questions from any and all. I am very excited about the curatorial opportunities that I will be pursuing, and look forward to collaborating with a new Head Librarian here at Stanford.

 

With best regards,

Peter