SU names Garrison as interim university librarian

SU names Garrison as interim university librarianJune 07, 2005Patrick Farrellpmfarrel@syr.edu

William Garrison, Syracuse University associate university librarian for information management and system services, has been named interim university librarian. He will begin his new position on June 17 and will serve in that role until a new university librarian is found. He succeeds Denise Stephens, acting university librarian, who is leaving SU to become vice provost for information services at the University of Kansas-Lawrence.

Garrison came to SU in December 2002 as associate university librarian for information management services. He was named associate university librarian for information management and system services earlier this year. While at SU, Garrison has managed the purchase and implementation of CONTENTdm, a digital content management system; and Meridian, an electronic resource management system. He served as project manager for the implementation of SULinks, an innovative, online research tool that provides direct links from databases to the full text of journal articles.

In addition to his hands-on work as associate university librarian, Garrison has promoted the library’s resources through a number of talks and lectures and has published widely on the subject of training for cataloging. A frequent guest lecturer in SU’s School of Information Studies, Garrison will teach a course in the school this summer on metadata and digital collections.

“I feel honored to be appointed interim university librarian and am excited about working with my colleagues in continuing the transformation of the Syracuse University Library as we look forward to the successful completion of the search for a new university librarian,” Garrison says.Before coming to SU, Garrison held information management positions at several leading university libraries, including Northwestern University, Stanford University and the University of Colorado-Boulder. While at Colorado, he was a key participant in the Colorado Digitization Program, which pioneered the establishment of metadata standards for digital projects.

Garrison is a member of the American Library Association (ALA)/Association for Library Collections and Technical Services. He is an ALA representative to the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions. A member of the Program for Cooperative Cataloging-an international program for bibliographic and authority record contribution-since its inception, Garrison has been awarded two special service citations for his contributions to that program. In the fall of 2004, Garrison was named a fellow in the highly prestigious Association of Research Libraries Library Leadership program.

“During this critical, transformational period for the Syracuse University Library, Bill brings the right mix of administrative know-how and mainstream and technological expertise to this position,” says Vice Chancellor Deborah A. Freund. “He is uniquely qualified to keep the library on course to incorporate the latest information technology while preserving the library’s best institutional traditions.”

Garrison holds bachelor’s degrees in Latin and German from Valparaiso University, a master’s degree in Latin from the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign and a M.L.S. degree from Dominican University in River Forest, Ill.