Welcoming Jo Anne Newyear-Ramirez

Jo Anne comes to us from her position as Associate University Librarian for Collection Development and Management Programs at the University of British Columbia, where she served eight years.  Previously she served ten years as the Assistant Head of Research Services at University of Texas at Austin, with broad responsibilities for collection management.  During that time she was also selector-bibliographer for nursing.

Jo Anne Newyear-Ramirez

As senior administrator for collections at UBC, Jo Anne provided stewardship to programs and practices that enhanced its library collections and supported existing and emerging academic and research needs of the university community.  She was a leader on matters relating to collections, scholarly communications, open access, copyright/rights management, digital publishing and the institutional repository.  She also provided leadership and direction to the Rare Books & Special Collections unit, technical services, and the University Archives.

Among many accomplishments at UBC, Jo Anne developed a preservation and conservation program. She developed and implemented the Library retention and collection location and storage strategy, which included creation of building plans and operational processes for a new long-term library storage facility.  She developed a licensing negotiating strategy and model license framework for UBC.  Jo Anne was also the lead investigator for UBC’s participation in the California Digital Library Mellon grant for the Pay-It-Forward Project on the economics of “gold” open access, headed by MacKenzie Smith (University Librarian at UC Davis).

At UC Berkeley, Jo Anne will lead our scholarly resource (collections and beyond) development, our new program in scholarly communications, and our Library-wide assessment and evaluation efforts.

I want to thank Jean McKenzie for serving as our Acting AUL for Collections since July 2013.  Following an unsuccessful search for the AUL for Collection Services in 2013, Jean accepted the Library’s invitation to transition from her position as Head of the Engineering Library into an interim AUL position.  Jean brought a wealth of knowledge and experience from her many years as a selector and participant in library committees.  Over the past three years, Jean made many contributions: she reshaped collections-related staffing and services especially within the Acquisitions Department, enhanced the roles of and collaboration among the Collection Development Leadership Group, implemented new funding models to better support multi-disciplinary fields, launched a new Data Acquisition and Access Program, contributed to improved selector training, served as interim selector and liaison for Germanic Studies, and ably represented Berkeley’s position in UC systemwide conversations as a member of the Collections Licensing Subgroup and the Shared Content Leadership Group.  Also under Jean’s initiative, the Berkeley Library was selected as a host for the ACRL Scholarly Communications Roadshow and welcomed our first Scholarly Communications Officer this summer.  Jean’s role in this difficult job was extended by a year due to the transition in University Librarians, and I am especially appreciative of how much Jean supported and helped me during my first nine months here.

Post submitted by:
Jeff MacKie-Mason
University Librarian
Chief Digital Scholarship Officer
Professor, School of Information and Professor of Economics