H. Thomas Hickerson

Director

Thomas Hickerson is Associate University Librarian for Information Technologies and Special Collections in the Cornell University Library. His special collections responsibilities include oversight of the Library's principal rare book and manuscript programs, and he directed the Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections from 1992 through 1998. His information technologies role includes direction of the Division of Digital Library and Information Technologies, with general responsibility for library systems operation, digital library development, and electronic publishing. He was founding director of the Cornell Institute for Digital Collections (CIDC) and continues to oversee its activities. The Institute was formally established with private funding in September 1997, and succeeds the Digital Access Coalition, which he organized in 1992. CIDC is an interdisciplinary unit with a campus-wide mandate to explore and promote the use of emerging technologies to expand access to cultural and scientific collections and to support the development and use of such resources through academic, corporate, and institutional partnerships.  Tom is presently Vice President/President Elect of the Society of American Archivists and was honored for his professional contributions by being named a Fellow of the Society in 1987. He has also served on the Executive Committee of the ACRL Rare Books and Manuscripts Section. In 1993, he was the recipient of an Andrew W. Mellon Research Fellowship, "Digital Access to Research Collections on College and University Campuses," and he has written and spoken extensively on archival and library automation and digital library development.