DigitalKoans

Rice University Picks Tyler Walters as New Vice Provost and University Librarian

Tyler Walters, currently Associate Director for Technology and Resource Services at the Georgia Institute of Technology Library and Information Center, has been named the new Vice Provost and University Librarian by Rice University. He will begin work on October 15, 2007.

Here's an excerpt from the press release:

Walters has 19 years of experience in university libraries and archives. His many professional activities help him keep up with the technological changes that are impacting libraries. He is a principal investigator for one of the eight original National Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation Program (NDIIPP) partnerships known as the MetaArchive Cooperative, which is building a distributed digital preservation network and an organizational model that is adaptable by many other consortia. He is a founding board member and treasurer of the Educopia Institute, which strives to sustain educational cyberinfrastructure advancement through projects and partnerships. He's also a member of the Library of Congress' Sustainability for Digital Preservation Strategic Working Group, which is part of the NDIIPP. . . .

As vice provost and university librarian, Walters will be responsible for working with faculty, students and staff in providing the overall leadership, strategy, policymaking and fundraising for Fondren Library and its related departments, including Woodson Research Center, Digital Library Initiative, Digital Media Center, Fondren Library Information Technology and Friends of Fondren Library. The library, which houses more than 2.3 million print volumes and subscribes to 36,800 current journals, employs approximately 120 staff members. . . .

An avid reader since his childhood in Pasadena, Calif., Walters said he honed his "voracious reading skills" while pursuing a Master of Arts in archival management at North Carolina State University's history department and a Master of Arts in library and information science at the University of Arizona. He also has a Bachelor of Arts cum laude in history from Northern Illinois University.

Before joining the Georgia Tech Library staff in 2002, Walters served as director of the William R. Haselton Library and Knowledge Center at the Institute of Paper Science and Technology in Atlanta. For six years prior to that he served in a number of positions at Iowa State University Library, including head of the special collections department and university archivist. He worked at Northwestern University Library as assistant university archivist, and he assisted with archival and reference services at the North Carolina Division of Archives and History.