Sarah Thomas from Oxford University Named First Harvard Library Vice President

Sarah Thomas of Oxford's Bodleian Libraries named to new post.

Sarah Thomas

Amid continuing leadership changes at the Harvard Library during a period of major reorganization, Provost Alan Garber announced on May 20 that Sarah Thomas, who currently directs the University of Oxford’s Bodleian Libraries, will be shifting her office to Cambridge, Massachusetts, in August. Thomas has been named vice president for the Harvard Library, a new position with overall responsibility for the institution. She will report to Garber; her responsibilities will include those held by Mary Lee Kennedy, formerly senior associate provost for the Harvard Library, who left in May to become chief library officer at the New York Public Library.

Thomas, who was named Bodley’s Librarian at Oxford in 2007, was the first woman, and the first non-British citizen, to hold that position in more than four centuries. (In the same year, she won the Dewey Medal from the American Library Association for “creative leadership of high order.”) Previously, she was Cornell’s University Librarian; during her tenure, that library won the Association of College and Research Libraries’ Excellence in Academic Libraries Award (2002). Thomas has also worked at the Library of Congress, where she established the Program for Cooperative Cataloging, and at the National Agricultural Library, the Research Libraries Group, and (in the early 1970s) at Widener Library.

Raised in Massachusetts, she graduated from Smith College in 1970, earned a master’s in library science from Simmons College in 1973, and a Ph.D. in German literature from Johns Hopkins in 1983. Her publications include “The Bod Squad,” in Transforming The Bodleian (2012); “The Encouragement of Learning,” in Copyright in the Digital Age (2010); “Publishing Solutions for Contemporary Scholars,” in Library HiTech (2010); and “Advancing Scholarship Through Library Collaboration,” in Die Innovative Bibliothek: Elmar Mittler zum 65. Geburtstag (2005). She has served on the Harvard Overseers’ visiting committee for the University Library and is currently a member of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Board, the Research Libraries UK Board, and the Smith College President’s Council, among other professional and community undertakings.

Helen Shenton, executive director of the Harvard Library, who will report to the new vice president, says, “Sarah's rich and deep experience in major research libraries in the U.S. and the U.K. will be an enormous benefit to the Harvard Library as it enters the next phase of its evolution.” 

You might also like

Harvard Football: Harvard 41, Brown 7

The Crimson assertively avenge last year’s loss to their Ivy rival.

What Happens When Infections Stop Responding to Antibiotics?

Harvard Medical School experts discuss the growing threat of antimicrobial resistance.

Green AI: Hype or Hope?

An expert panel explores AI’s climate impact, from emissions to water use.

Most popular

Trump Says a Deal with Harvard Is Close

Administration squeezes Harvard finances, and a federal judge blasts deportation efforts as unconstitutional.

At Harvard, Mike Pence Discusses Democracy and Conservatism

The former vice president denounces political violence, expresses hope for a deal between Trump and the University.

Harvard Art Historian Jennifer Roberts Teaches the Value of Immersive Attention

Teaching students the value of deceleration and immersive attention

Explore More From Current Issue

Man splashing water on his face at outdoor fountain beside woman holding cup near stone building.

Why Heat Waves Make You Miserable

Scientists are studying how much heat and humidity the human body can take.

Brandon Terry, wearing a blue suit, standing before The Embrace, a large bronze sculpture of intertwined arms in Boston Common.

A New Narrative of Civil Rights

Political philosopher Brandon Terry’s vision of racial progress

Catherine Zipf smiling, wearing striped shirt and dark sweater outdoors.

Preserving the History of Jim Crow Era Safe Havens

Architectural historian Catherine Zipf is building a database of Green Book sites.