John Price Wilkin is an American librarian whose work has primarily been in development of

digital library A digital library, also called an online library, an internet library, a digital repository, or a digital collection is an online database of digital objects that can include text, still images, audio, video, digital documents, or other digital me ...

technologies and research library management. He is currently the Juanita J. and Robert E. Simpson Dean of Libraries and University Librarian at the

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (U of I, Illinois, University of Illinois, or UIUC) is a public land-grant research university in Illinois in the twin cities of Champaign and Urbana. It is the flagship institution of the Univ ...

Education

Wilkin received his BA in English and Education from

Antioch College Antioch College is a private liberal arts college in Yellow Springs, Ohio. Founded in 1850 by the Christian Connection, the college began operating in 1852 as a non-sectarian institution; politician and education reformer Horace Mann was its f ...

(1979), his MA in English from the

University of Virginia The University of Virginia (UVA) is a Public university#United States, public research university in Charlottesville, Virginia. Founded in 1819 by Thomas Jefferson, the university is ranked among the top academic institutions in the United S ...

(1980), and his MLS from the

University of Tennessee at Knoxville The University of Tennessee (officially The University of Tennessee, Knoxville; or UT Knoxville; UTK; or UT) is a public land-grant research university in Knoxville, Tennessee. Founded in 1794, two years before Tennessee became the 16th state, ...

(1986).

Career

After an initial career as a high school English teacher in Harrisonburg, Virginia, Wilkin began work in research libraries, first through the Research Library Residency Program at the University of Michigan. His early jobs included working as the Data Services Librarian at the

University of Michigan , mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth" , former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821) , budget = $10.3 billion (2021) , endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...

, where he developed a service (UMLibText) that made SGML-encoded text available to the campus through pre-web technologies, and then at the University of Virginia where he directed the development of web-based digital technologies (1992–1994). He established the Humanities Text Initiative at the University of Michigan in 1994. In 1996, he was appointed the first director of the

Digital Library Production Service The University of Michigan Library is the academic library system of the University of Michigan. The university's 38 constituent and affiliated libraries together make it the second largest research library by number of volumes in the United State ...

, where he led in the development of online text and journal initiatives, including supporting the creation of the

Making of America Making of America (MoA) is a collaborative effort by Cornell University and the University of Michigan to digitize and make available a collection of primary sources relating to the development of U.S infrastructure. The Making of America collection ...

. He was appointed Associate University Librarian for Library Information Technology at Michigan in 2002, led Michigan in its creation of and participation in the

Google Books Library Project Google Books (previously known as Google Book Search, Google Print, and by its code-name Project Ocean) is a service from Google Inc. that searches the full text of books and magazines that Google has scanned, converted to text using optical c ...

, and served as Interim co-director of the Library in 2006-2007. In 2012, he was also appointed Associate University Librarian for Publishing, overseeing MPublishing, which had previously incorporated the Scholarly Publishing Office and the

University of Michigan Press The University of Michigan Press is part of Michigan Publishing at the University of Michigan Library. It publishes 170 new titles each year in the humanities and social sciences. Titles from the press have earned numerous awards, including L ...

. He played a central role in creating

HathiTrust HathiTrust Digital Library is a large-scale collaborative repository of digital content from research libraries including content digitized via Google Books and the Internet Archive digitization initiatives, as well as content digitized locally ...

in 2008 and served as the Executive Director (later Chief Executive Officer) of HathiTrust until 2013. John Wilkin assumed the position of Dean of Libraries and University Librarian at the

University of Illinois The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (U of I, Illinois, University of Illinois, or UIUC) is a public land-grant research university in Illinois in the twin cities of Champaign and Urbana. It is the flagship institution of the University ...

in 2013. In addition, he served as Interim Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs and Provost Designate at Illinois from February 2017 through January 2018. In October 2022, Wilkin was named CEO of

Lyrasis Lyrasis is a non-profit member organization serving and supporting libraries, archives, museums, and cultural heritage organizations around the world. Lyrasis is based in the United States. It was created in April 2009 from the merger of SOLINET an ...

, effective December 1st.

Awards

*2011 LITA/Library Hi Tech award for Outstanding Communication in Library and Information Technology

References

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External links

About John Wilkin
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wilkin, John American librarians Living people University of Michigan staff University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign faculty Year of birth missing (living people)