Geoffrey Robert Little has been named the new vice-provost and chief librarian of Western Libraries. His five-year term begins July 22.
Little comes to Western from Concordia University, where he’s held a series of leadership roles, including his current position as associate university librarian for scholarly communication.
“We’re thrilled to welcome Geoffrey to Western,” said Florentine Strzelczyk, provost and vice-president (academic). “He brings extensive knowledge on the academic library environment with a range of experience and skills including public services planning and delivery, project and information technology management, collection stewardship, donor engagement and building consensus as a highly respected leader.”
Little succeeds Catherine Steeves, who has held the role since 2014.
At Concordia, Little played a pivotal role in creating and launching Concordia University Press, a non-profit open-access scholarly publisher. During his tenure, Concordia also developed a multi-phase digital preservation service, expanded its open educational resources (OER) program, and implemented the ORCID (Open Research and Contributor ID) system, which gives researchers a unique consistent identifier, connected to all their scholarly work.
“I’m delighted to be joining Western, recognized as one of the country’s great universities for its top-ranked academic programs and student experience,” he said. “Western’s researchers are engaging in important international conversations addressing worldwide challenges, and with the university’s 150th anniversary approaching, it’s an exciting place to be, at an exciting moment in time, with more opportunities ahead.”
Lifelong love of libraries
Libraries have long been a special place for Little, who grew up in Guelph, Ont.
“I have a powerful childhood memory of walking into the main branch of the public library with my father and being astonished when he explained that everything on the shelves ─ the magazines, the books, the films, the musical recordings ─ was freely available to anyone.”
The branch became a favourite place for Little – and the site of his first job. Later, as an undergraduate majoring in history at the University of Toronto, he shelved books in the library at Trinity College.
Upon graduation, Little worked in the Office of the Lieutenant Governor of Ontario as research and correspondence coordinator before returning to U of T to earn his master of library and information science.
Little spent three years working at Yale University as library communications coordinator and contributing to the library’s collection development, instruction, and advancement programs, before joining Concordia in 2010. He earned a second graduate degree in history from Concordia in 2015 and for several years he taught a graduate course on the history of books and printing at McGill University’s School of Information Studies.
He is also an active researcher in academic librarianship, having published and presented widely, and he has received grants from several funding bodies, including the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC). In 2023 he was the Patricia Fleming Fellow in Bibliography and Book History at the University of Toronto and a Visiting Scholar at Massey College.
“A constant in the history of the libraries is that they are always changing and adapting,” Little said. “The profession of academic librarianship has become more complex over the last 20 years. There’s been increasing needs in areas like data management, publishing, special collections, and digital preservation and in helping students not just find and access resources, but use them in thoughtful, meaningful ways, applying information literacy and source validity skills.”
“In a moment where so many previously trusted sources like the media and the government are being challenged, libraries remain a trusted partner and resource for students, faculty and researchers.”
Librarians key to student, researcher success
On a recent campus visit, Little was struck by the welcoming atmosphere of Weldon Library and Western Libraries’ commitment to equity, diversity, inclusion and decolonization.
“The repatriation work and the amplifying of Indigenous collections in archives and special collections and a SSHRC-funded project around sustainable collection development are incredibly important,” he said. “The call we’ve been asked to answer through reparation and relationship building with underrepresented communities must be long term. We can’t think of it as a five-year, 10-year project. Equity needs to be baked into our daily work.”
In leading an academic library, how will Little measure success?
“There are traditional measures we submit to various associations each year about the number of books that are added to the collection and the number of reference transactions. Those are useful and important, but they don’t tell the full story. It’s the librarians, archivists and library staff who have a direct, positive impact on the lives of the people they work with.
“Libraries are a place to access collections and expertise. But they’re also a place where people can experience quiet time or meet friends or work in groups,” he said. “I think that’s real testament to their importance and enduring value.”
Strzelczyk thanked the members of the librarian selection committee and extended her appreciation to Steeves for her significant contributions to advancing the strategies and priorities during her two terms at Western Libraries.
