Princeton University Library, 1 Washington Road, Harvey S. Firestone Library, Princeton 08544. 609-258-5964. Anne Jarvis, university librarian. library.princeton.edu.
The Princeton University Library is coming down the home stretch of its 10-year renovation program, now being directed by its new librarian, Anne Jarvis. Last year Jarvis replaced Karin Trainer, who had retired.
“Anne Jarvis is one of the world’s premier librarians,” Princeton University president Christopher L. Eisgruber said at the time of her appointment. “Her proven track record of exceptional service, technological innovation, and responsive management at Cambridge makes her an ideal leader for Princeton’s library system.”
Princeton University Library is a research library that consists of the Harvey S. Firestone Library and nine special libraries. It serves about 8,000 students, 1,200 faculty members, and many visiting scholars with collections of more than 8 million printed volumes, extensive digital holdings, and collections of rare books, prints, and archives.
“I am absolutely delighted that we have been able to recruit Anne Jarvis to be the next university librarian,” said David Lee, an economics professor who was provost at the time of Jarvis’ appointment. “Anne comes to us with a deep appreciation of the importance of an extraordinary and established collection to a community of world-class scholars and students. She has a reputation for creatively and energetically reaching out to library users, whether they are faculty or students, to understand the many ways the library can best serve their interests.”
Jarvis now oversees a staff of more than 350 employees, complemented by a large student workforce.
Jarvis has a bachelor’s degree from Trinity College Dublin, a diploma in library and information studies from University College Dublin, a master’s degree in communication and cultural studies from Dublin City University, and a master of arts from Cambridge.
Her library career began in special libraries and included posts in Ireland and the United Kingdom. She began working in academic libraries in 1992 and spent some years at Dublin City University and Trinity College Dublin. In 2000 she was appointed deputy librarian at Cambridge and in 2009 became the librarian.
The university is in the midst of a 10-year comprehensive renovation of Firestone Library, scheduled for completion in September, 2018.
