EUGENE–Deborah A. Carver, a University of Oregon associate university librarian for public services and collections, has been named interim university librarian following the June 30 retirement of George W. Shipman.

Provost John Moseley says Carver, the Oregon Library Association’s 1999 Librarian of the Year, will assume her full-time duties immediately.

A committee to undertake a national search for a new university librarian will be named this fall, with the expectation of filling the endowed post by the start of the next fiscal year in July 2001.

"With 20 years of service as university librarian, George Shipman has led the UO Library System through a significant transformation into the Information Age," says Moseley, UO vice president for academic affairs. "The library, thanks to his leadership, is in excellent shape and well positioned to continue being a leader among university research libraries."

The UO provost praised Shipman for assembling an outstanding library staff, including a team of three associate librarians–Deborah Carver, public services; Andrew Bonamici, administrative services; and Mark Watson, technical services–who Moseley says are well equipped to continue the kind of leadership Shipman has provided during his tenure.

"We’ve asked Deborah Carver to lead this capable team as interim librarian for the next year," Moseley says, noting she has played a critical role in the library’s growth and transformation. "I look forward to working with her and with all of the other members of the library staff."

Carver, who admits she cares a lot about the library and the University of Oregon, says she is honored and excited to be given this opportunity to serve as interim librarian.

"It will be a challenge to follow in the footsteps of George Shipman who has led the library with such vision and foresight," she says. "With the assistance of Andrew and Mark, the associate librarians, and the rest of our dedicated professional librarians and support staff, we will continue our forward momentum in enhancing service to our many student, faculty, staff and other clients."

Carver, who has held her current associate librarian post since 1994, came to the University of Oregon in 1990 as assistant librarian for public services. She also served as acting head of the reference section during 1990-91 and as acting assistant librarian for personnel during 1991-94.

A 1973 magna cum laude graduate of the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, in political science, Carver earned a master’s degree in library science from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, in 1976 and a master’s degree in public administration from the University of Virginia, Charlottesville, in 1984.

From 1976 to 1984, she held several posts in libraries at the University of Virginia. Carver was associate librarian for public services at Appalachian State University in Boone, N.C., from 1984-89.

Carver represents Oregon as an elected member of the American Library Association Council, having previously served that professional group as chair and member of numerous committees. The 1995-96 president of the Oregon Library Association, she currently serves on its legislative committee and chaired its Vision 2010 Task Force.

Author of numerous publications and presentations, Carver chairs the Orbis Task Force on Electronic Resources and is a member of Oregon’s Statewide Database Licensing Committee. She received a grant from what is now the Oregon University System for an innovative program to teach the basics of information technology to incoming college students.

Shipman, the Philip H. Knight University Librarian, is retiring after two decades of dedicated service to the University of Oregon. During his tenure, Shipman’s leadership, innovation, and vision have propelled the UO Library System into the ranks of the top research libraries in the nation.

Among Shipman’s many achievements, he:

• Oversaw implementation of the library’s automated online information system;

• Played a leadership role in the establishment of Orbis, a consortium of 14 public and private academic libraries in Oregon and Washington. This groundbreaking collaboration now provides online access to a shared collection of more than 8 million books, deliverable within 48 hours to students and faculty at member institutions, in addition to networked access to electronic databases and resources;

• Boosted the library’s collection from 1,474,358 volumes in 1980 to 2,362,984 volumes in 1999, a remarkable achievement given that library material costs experienced high inflation rates through the 1980s and ‘90s, compounded by budgetary constraints for higher education in Oregon;

• Initiated a successful library development program, which has raised roughly $30 million for a variety of library services and programs, including the renovation and expansion of the university’s main library building, named the Knight Library as the result of an earlier, generous gift from NIKE co-founder Phil Knight; the renovation of the Science and the Architecture and Allied Arts libraries; and the creation of the Philip H. Knight University Librarian endowed chair;

• Stimulated the creation of a comprehensive library instructional program for computer information literacy and research methods, in which more than 8,500 students, faculty, staff and community members participated last year;

• Established the Knight Library Press, a fine printing press that produces limited-edition books, broadsides and commemorative pieces;

• Participated nationally in the profession through involvement in programs such as the Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition Working Group (SPARC), which promotes the academic value of access to information for research and teaching and encourages the use of technology to improve scholarly communication through the establishment of alternative electronic journals;

• Participated in development and outreach efforts to East Asia and worked to forge partnerships with the Waseda, Tokyo and Korean national universities, and with other East Asian institutions; and

• Advocated passionately for diversity in the library profession.

"George Shipman is a stellar member of a select class of senior research library directors who have made consistently strong contributions over time on a wide range of issues," says Duane Webster, executive director of Association of Research Libraries (ARL). "This has included copyright, intellectual property, and scholarly communication; research library facilities; and development and fundraising."

Webster adds that Shipman has played an extraordinary part in establishing ARL’s programs for recruiting members of underrepresented minority groups to the profession.

"He passionately promoted, nudged and orated on the critical importance of diverse workforces–and diverse leadership–in research libraries," Webster says. "Now, ARL’s diversity programs are a model for the entire profession, and include a fully funded, dues-based stipend program for qualified Master of Library Science students who are members of racial/ethnic minority groups and are pursuing careers in research librarianship."

Shipman was an elected delegate to the Online Computer Library Center (OCLC) Users Council for seven years, and served as a member and chair of OCLC’s Research Library Advisory Council. Headquartered in Dublin, Ohio, OCLC is a nonprofit computer library service and research organization whose computer network and services link more than 37,000 libraries in 76 countries and territories. OCLC is dedicated to the public purposes of furthering access to the world’s information and reducing information costs.

"George Shipman has contributed greatly to the OCLC community over nearly two decades," says Jay Jordan, president and chief executive officer of OCLC, Inc. "Under his leadership, the University of Oregon Library has introduced innovative services for students and faculty and has moved to the forefront of library resource sharing in the new global, digital environment.

"We at OCLC want to express our heartfelt thanks to George for his hard work on behalf of libraries and their users," Jordan adds. "We wish him the best on his retirement."

In addition, Shipman’s professional involvements have included serving on the board of directors of the Center for Research Libraries and life membership in the American Library Association. He also is a member of the National Association of State Universities and Land Grant Colleges Commission on Information Technologies.

A 1957 graduate of Monroe (Mich.) High School, Shipman received his bachelor’s degree in history from Albion (Mich.) College in 1963. He earned his master’s degree in American history at Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, in 1965 and taught at Inter-American University of Puerto Rico for one year before returning to complete his master’s degree in library science at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, in 1967.

A Library of Congress intern in 1967, Shipman served there in several subsequent capacities until 1971. Then he went to the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, where he served as assistant and associate director of libraries for administrative services until coming to Oregon in 1980.

The UO Library System is the largest research library in the state, consisting of the Knight Library and six branch libraries. The only Oregon member of the prestigious Association of Research Libraries, it also is a leader in automation and houses a collection of more than 2.3 million bound volumes and other materials.

Through donations of private materials and funds, the library’s areas of particular strength include 20th-century American politics, Native American literature, children’s literature, English history and literature of the Enlightenment, modern Chinese literature, and the Oregon Collection of Northwest books and reference materials.

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