University Librarian and Dean of the University Library Appointment

 

To: Faculty and Other Academic Appointees

From: Ka Yee C. Lee, Provost

Subject: University Librarian and Dean of the University Library Appointment

Date: December 10, 2021

 

I am pleased to announce that Torsten Reimer, Head of Content and Research Services at the British Library, has been named University Librarian and Dean of the University Library, effective March 15, 2022.

 

Torsten will partner closely with individuals across campus to build upon the Library’s exceptional service-oriented culture to advance the University of Chicago’s rigorous academic goals. He will lead the process of developing and implementing a comprehensive strategic vision for the future of the University Library and elevate its prominence across the nation and around the world. In his current role at the British Library, Torsten ensures that contemporary collections and research services meet the needs of in-person and online international users of one of the world’s largest research libraries. A member of the strategic leadership team, he oversees content and research services strategies, contemporary acquisitions, content processing (including legal deposit), digital collection preservation and management, and related scholarly infrastructures. Torsten is the British Library’s strategic expert for scholarly communications, including open access, research data, and alternative publishing models.

 

Previously, Torsten served as Scholarly Communications Officer at Imperial College London, where he oversaw the development of open access and research data services. He also worked as a Program Manager for digital infrastructure at Jisc, the United Kingdom’s digital service provider for higher and continuing education, managing programs and innovation projects including the National Grid Service and National Centre for Text Mining. Prior to that, Torsten held several positions at King’s College London and coordinated an international network supporting digital scholarship in the arts and humanities.

 

Torsten holds a Magister Artium and PhD in history, both from Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich (LMU). He currently serves as an executive board member of DataCite, a global non-profit organization that provides persistent identifiers for research data and other research outputs. In addition, he is chair of the digital shift working group of Research Libraries UK, chair of the advisory board for the library system of the University of Cologne, and vice chair of the Open Repositories conference.

 

The search for the University Librarian and Dean of the University Library was informed by a committee chaired by Melina Hale, Vice Provost and William Rainey Harper Professor in Organismal Biology and Anatomy and the College, and William Howell, Sydney Stein Professor in American Politics at the Harris School of Public Policy and professor in the Department of Political Science and the College. Storbeck Search was retained to manage the search. I want to express my thanks to the committee members for their thoughtful work and commitment to the University. I am also deeply grateful to Elisabeth Long, Interim Library Director and University Librarian, and Brenda Johnson, Senior Advisor to the Provost for the Library, for their leadership. Elisabeth will remain in her interim role until Torsten assumes his new position in March, and Brenda will remain at the University through mid-April to ensure a smooth leadership transition.

 

Please join me in welcoming Torsten to the University.