Career Summary

Jerome Yavarkovsky was University Librarian at Boston College for thirteen years.  Before that, for ten years he was Director of the New York State Library in Albany, the only state library member of the Association of Research Libraries.  He also has seventeen years of university library administrative experience, mostly at Columbia University as Systems Librarian and Assistant Director of Libraries for Planning, but also as Dean of Libraries at Adelphi University.  In total, Jerome has been in leadership positions in large research libraries for more than thirty-five years. His educational background uniquely prepared him for his career.

From early in his career, Jerome has contributed as participant and leader in national, regional and institutional activities through professional associations, consortia and organizations of all kinds. He has chaired and served on numerous committees, task forces and working groups, and is currently on the editorial board of the journals College and Research Libraries and portal: Libraries and the Academy. Jerome has engaged in groundbreaking work in the course of his career, and this has been reflected in his publications and presentations.

Jerome, Emeritus since 2008, gladly responded to the call to serve as Interim Executive Director of the Boston Library Consortium from October 2009 until June 2010, and enjoyed working with the new staff of the Consortium and once again with friends and colleagues.

Since retiring from his career as academic and research library director, Jerome has been founding co-chair of the Library Technology Working Group under the Immersive Education Initiative of the Media Grid. In 2013, The Working Group was reconstituted as the Libraries and Museums Working Group.