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, a library without walls, or a digital collection) is an online database of digital resources that can include text, still images, audio, video, digital ...

technologies and research library management. He was formerly 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 (UIUC, U of I, Illinois, or University of Illinois) is a public land-grant research university in the Champaign–Urbana metropolitan area, Illinois, United States. Established in 1867, it is the f ...

, and is currently the Chief Executive Officer of Lyrasis.

Education

Wilkin received his BA in English and Education from

Antioch College Antioch College is a Private college, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Yellow Springs, Ohio, United States. It was founded in 1850 by the Christian Connection and began operating in 1852 as a non-secta ...

(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, United States. It was founded in 1819 by Thomas Jefferson and contains his The Lawn, Academical Village, a World H ...

(1980), and his MLS from the University of Tennessee at Knoxville (1986).

Career

After an initial career as a high school English teacher in

Harrisonburg, Virginia Harrisonburg is an independent city (United States), independent city in the Shenandoah Valley region of the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States. It is also the county seat of the surrounding Rockingham Cou ...

, Wilkin began work in research libraries, first through the Research Library Residency Program at the

University of Michigan The University of Michigan (U-M, U of M, or Michigan) is a public university, public research university in Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States. Founded in 1817, it is the oldest institution of higher education in the state. The University of Mi ...

. His early jobs included working as the Data Services Librarian at the University of Michigan, 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, 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 collectio ...

. In 2002, Wilkin was appointed Associate University Librarian for Library Information Technology at the University of Michigan. He 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 that searches the full text of books and magazines that Google has scanned, converted to text using optical charac ...

, 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 a university press that is a 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 earn ...

. He played a central role in creating

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

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

University of Illinois The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC, U of I, Illinois, or University of Illinois) is a public university, public land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Champaign–Urbana metropolitan area, Illinois, United ...

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, effective December 1st.

Awards

*2011 LITA/Library Hi Tech award for Outstanding Communication in Library and Information Technology *2019 Hugh Atkinson Memorial Award from the

American Library Association The American Library Association (ALA) is a nonprofit organization based in the United States that promotes libraries and library education internationally. It is the oldest and largest library association in the world. History 19th century ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wilkin, John American librarians Living people University of Michigan staff University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign faculty Year of birth missing (living people) American nonprofit chief executives Antioch College alumni University of Virginia alumni University of Tennessee alumni