She’s worked among the big cats!
Hunter College’s new chief librarian, Colleen Major, brings broad experience as a scholar and leader in university and public libraries – lastly working at The New York Public Library with its iconic lion statues.
As the director of collections access and discovery at NYPL, she led teams supporting services for the three Library Research Centers: the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building at 42nd Street, the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in Harlem, and the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts at Lincoln Center.
“I am excited to be joining Hunter College, and I look forward to enhancing the library experience through ensuring our collections, spaces, and services meet the research needs of the Hunter College community,” Major said. “I look forward to partnering with campus to support curriculum and instructional needs, and to further develop the library into a place for innovation and creativity.”
Major succeeds Interim Chief Librarian John Pell, who helmed the Leon and Toby Cooperman Library for the last three years.
“Our deepest thanks go to John Pell, whose thoughtful and inclusive leadership has brought stability and continued success to the library,” said Interim Provost Manoj Pardasani. “He has been a passionate advocate for the library and has made a tremendous impact during his tenure through recruitment of faculty, reclassification of staff, increasing circulation of physical library items, improving library coverage of required course readings, and promotion of the library as a shared space for the Hunter community.”
Major earlier served as the associate university librarian for scholarly resources at Brown University, leading the teams responsible for cataloging, metadata for digital projects, electronic resources, and acquisitions.
In earlier roles, Major’s work focused on improving the research experience for users, making it more seamless and intuitive. Major has extensive expertise of the life cycle of printed and digital materials, the platforms that hold access to them, and the library-wide support and practices needed to enrich user research, information skills, and the scholastic excellence of all its users.
Before joining Brown, she headed electronic resources management and operations and analysis at Columbia University. She also held positions at the University of Montana and Virginia Tech.
Major earned an MS in Nonprofit Management from Columbia University and received an MLS from the University at Buffalo. She was a member of the 2023 Association of Research Libraries Intensive Learning Program, an eight-month leadership program that explored operational aspects of leadership in research libraries and archives. She recently attended the International Library Leaders Programme, an intensive professional development program for library and archive professionals at the British Library.
Major will begin her tenure on October 1.
