Please extend a warm “Wildcat welcome” to our new Assistant Director of Collections & Discovery, James Simon. Prior to Davidson, James served as Director of Collections and Partnerships at the Center for Research Libraries (CRL), a nonprofit consortium of academic libraries dedicated to building shared collections for research and teaching. In his role at CRL he led content strategies and collaborative programs that provide access to unique and distinctive resources. An ardent champion of cooperative collection development, James pioneered major strategic collection partnerships to provide open and equitable access to research material in print and electronic formats. James has presented internationally on the power of collaboration in affecting transformative change in libraries and has served as principal investigator for numerous international grant-funded initiatives. He is presently pursuing his master’s degree in Library and Information Science at Dominican University (Illinois) and has a bachelor’s degree in International Politics from Georgetown University.
James will play a critical role in helping to define and implement strategies to support Davidson’s library of the future, including the review and development of policies, procedures, and workflows for the lifecycle management of collections and the systems that provide access to them. A truly kind, capable, and collaborative leader, he will guide the collections team in providing excellent services in the areas of collection development, discovery, e-resource licensing, acquisitions, and the organization of library materials. We’re thrilled by the unique experiences that James brings to Davidson, particularly around collaborative collection building and his focus on open and equitable access to information. Library of the the future…here we come!
Please stop by the library and say hello: Most days, you’ll find James in the back office area near InterLibrary Loan or perusing the stacks. Welcome to Davidson, James!
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