Paul Glassman has been named the new Director of University Libraries and began in that role in early September. Provost Botman announced his appointment in her letter to the faculty on October 7, 2015.
Glassman has a twenty-year association with the university, having taught architectural history and design as an adjunct instructor in Yeshiva College since 1994. Teaching a sequence of four history and two studio courses, he also advises students who pursue the minor in architecture. Both Pollack and Gottesman Libraries have been sources of inspiration for his students.
Glassman comes to the YU libraries from Felician University in Bergen County, New Jersey, where he served as Director of Library Services and Associate Professor. At Felician he oversaw the Lodi campus library and two embedded satellite libraries on the university’s Rutherford campus, ensuring provision of a full range of services for students and faculty on both campuses, as well as for online students and those enrolled at degree-completion sites throughout New Jersey.
Glassman joins the YU libraries at a pivotal time as the renovation of the Gottesman Library building nears completion, and he will play an important role in guiding future redesigns and renovations of library spaces. He will also foster collaborations with other campus agencies, such as the Writing Center, and will lead explorations of the libraries’ role in highlighting the intellectual and creative output of YU faculty.
Glassman’s appointment follows a search that began with the retirement of the Libraries’ dean of 30 years, Pearl Berger.
“I’m very happy about the opportunity to add library service to my responsibilities at YU,” Glassman says. “It is an honor to join a community of faculty, professional library staff, and students with an international reputation for commitment and service. I look forward to being a part of conversations across the university community about the future of library spaces, services, and resources. With the talented staff of the libraries, we have a real opportunity to extend YU’s record of scholarly contributions and to promote the libraries’ remarkable archival and rare book collections.”
Glassman’s career began at The Art Institute of Chicago, where he was the Ryerson and Burnham Libraries’ first architecture librarian. He served as Director of Education at Chicago Architecture Foundation, as well as Art and Architecture Librarian at Pratt Institute. He was also Assistant Dean for Reference Services and Collection Development at Hofstra University in Nassau County, where he supervised a public services arena of twelve full-time and three part-time library faculty.
At Felician University he actively participated in the strategic planning process and completed annual assessment templates to ensure institutional effectiveness. He contributed the library component for the successful application to the New Jersey Building Our Future Bond Act capital improvement fund, resulting in a $4.375 million award to the university for the renovation of the former Messler Library into a 16,000-square-foor education commons, for which he also composed the architectural program. He launched new technologies, such as a discovery tool for integrating information seeking and a digital repository for access to and dissemination of faculty and student scholarship and creative work.
Glassman received his BA from Bowdoin College, a Master of Architecture degree from the University Colorado, an MS in library science from Simmons College, and an MBA in innovation and entrepreneurial leadership from Felician University. He has written and spoken on the topics of user participation in library design, project management for library renovation, and classroom design for information fluency instruction. During the summer session he teaches art librarianship and library design at Rutgers University.
In his new role, Glassman will work with a diverse staff of over forty on both the Wilf and Beren campuses. Comprising three libraries at two locations (Pollack Library and Landowne Bloom Collection and the Mendel Gottesman Library of Hebraica/Judaica on the Wilf Campus, and the Hedi Steinberg Library on the Beren Campus), the YU libraries hold almost 900,000 volumes and provide access to more than 50,000 electronic journals, several hundred databases, and 428,000 electronic book titles. The Gottesman Library holds one of the world’s great Judaic library collections, with particular strengths in Bible, Rabbinic literature, Jewish history, Jewish philosophy, Hebrew language and literature. Special collections include approximately 8,000 printed volumes, most of them in Hebrew, and over one thousand rabbinic and historical manuscripts. Serving as the repository for Yeshiva University records, the archives include organizational and institutional records and private papers relating to modern Jewish history and culture in the United States and abroad.
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