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Introducing John M. Unsworth as Dean

John M. Unsworth became dean of the University of Illinois Graduate School of Library and Information Science on August 16, 2003. Unsworth succeeds Linda C. Smith, who has served as interim dean since August 2001, when Leigh Estabrook, the dean for 15 years, returned to the GSLIS faculty.

Unsworth came to Illinois from the University of Virginia, where he spent ten years as associate professor in the Department of English and founding director of the Institute for Advanced Technology in the Humanities (IATH), whose goal is "to explore and expand the potential of information technology as a tool for humanities research." Under his leadership, IATH tripled the number of staff members to nine, quadrupled its budget, and increased the number of fellows from two to 40.

Even the location of the IATH offices—in the west wing of Virginia's Alderman Library—proved auspicious, because his work in humanities computing paralleled the work typically done within library and information science. But Virginia doesn't have a library school, so it was IATH that allowed him to focus his research in areas that are at the core of library science: information management, knowledge representation, and the long-term preservation of "born digital" data.

Unsworth is a frequent invited speaker on topics related to digital scholarship, digital libraries, and scholarly publishing, including presentations at the 2002 American Library Association Conference in Atlanta and an April 2002 symposium convened by the Council on Library and Information Resources.

Unsworth is currently the president of the Association for Computers and the Humanities and the chairman of the board of the Text Encoding Initiative Consortium. He is also co-founder, editor emeritus, and member of the editorial board of Postmodern Culture, the Internet's oldest peer-reviewed journal in the humanities, which is now published by Johns Hopkins University Press.

He earned his doctoral degree in English at Virginia in 1988, his master's in English at Boston University in 1982, and his bachelor's from Amherst College—also in English and magna cum laude—in 1981.

A Conversation with John Unsworth

When you first learned GSLIS was seeking a new dean, what attracted your interest?

It was a step-by-step process. I was initially skeptical about the fit, actually, but the search firm said that, as the number one library school, GSLIS was secure enough in its own identity to consider non-traditional candidates, and they were interested in finding a dean who would keep the school at the top of the heap, and at the cutting edge. That persuaded me to come talk to the search committee, and at this point I was impressed with the members of that committee—not only the library school faculty, but also the chair of the committee (the dean of the College of Education) and the university librarian. That meeting, which seemed to go well on both sides, persuaded me to continue the process, and do the whole campus visit thing: when I met the rest of the faculty, the interim dean, the graduate students, and the staff I was sold. I'd like to emphasize that the dedication to the school on the part of Linda Smith and Leigh Estabrook, and represented by the 125 years of accumulated service on the part of the office staff, was a deciding factor for me—for an outsider, that kind of continuity of commitment is the most reliable indicator of the school's viability, morale, and potential.

You became director of the Institute for Advanced Technology in the Humanities (IATH) when it was first established. How do you see your experience in starting this institute from the ground-up being applied to a school that is over one hundred years old?

Old institutions are old because they've been continually renewed, renovated, and redesigned—otherwise, they'd be dead. So, even in a school more than a century old, new programs, new ideas, new approaches are necessary. At the same time, keeping track of the historical mission of the school, and of library schools in general, is key to maintaining a sense of mission through these inevitable changes and renovations. I think the experience of setting up IATH, in the midst of a library, as an extension of traditional humanities research culture, and as an outpost of new scholarly publishing activity, has given me a lot of experience in balancing continuity and innovation.

As the IATH director and a faculty member at University of Virginia, you've compiled an impressive record as both a scholar and an administrator. How do you balance these often divergent roles?

Happily, since my area of research is scholarly communication and knowledge representation, the things I administer have been the objects of my own research, and I expect that to continue. That arrangement makes it possible to do both things at the same time, and it also means that my research always grows out of real-world experience.

We have been hearing some concerns about the fact that you don't have a degree in library science and you haven't worked as a librarian. Would you like to address those concerns?

I fully understand that I will have many things to learn on the job, but I wouldn't have taken this job if I didn't think I could do it well and advance the school's agenda. I also think it's a logical next step from the work I have been doing, because I think library schools are the most likely disciplinary home for humanities computing, or informatics in general.

Still, I understand that one might wonder whether a non-librarian can relate to the issues that professional librarians face every day. I think I can: since 1990, I have been working with librarians on issues of central importance to research libraries—namely, the costs and methods of scholarly communications. This topic has been the focus of my research activities since I was a graduate student, and I am pleased to say that I've made some difference in the field, in very practical ways. Beyond that, I have been part of the professional conversation on these issues in libraries and at library conferences for more than a decade. That steady stream of activity ought to indicate that I have a serious interest in library issues, and that my engagement in those issues matters to professional librarians.

There's another version of this concern that's premised on the belief that administrators must hold a degree from the unit they run. Frankly, I find that argument less compelling. As a faculty member of the department of English at the University of Virginia, I had a dean who is a historian, and a provost who is a biologist. Should I object to their appointments because neither of them has a degree in English? I think that would be foolish. Administrators need to understand the challenges facing their units, and they need to be effective advocates, within and without the university, for those units, but if one could only administer programs in which one had a degree, universities wouldn't have any administration above the level of department chair.

I have great respect for the mission of librarians, and over the last decade I have spent a good deal of time, and considerable professional capital, explaining and justifying the library mission to publishers, faculty members, and administrators. I'll be happy to spend the next ten years doing the same, and I hope that, at some point during that tenure, my actions will persuade the doubtful that I'm not the enemy, nor a dilettante, but a friend of the profession, and someone who values its history and its commitments.

You co-founded Postmodern Culture in 1990—well before the Internet took such a hold in our everyday lives. Having been involved in the launch of a then-experimental and now-leading electronic journal, what have you learned about risk-taking and innovation in the academy? What innovations do you see on the horizon for scholarly communication?

I think I've learned that risk-taking is a good thing in the academy, as long as you're willing to accept either outcome (success or failure). The paradox of the academy is that, although it doesn't really inculcate or encourage risk-taking, it does actually reward it. The innovation I see on the horizon for scholarly communication? A new collaborative genre: (multi-author, interdisciplinary, web-based) thematic research collections.

What do you think are the greatest challenges facing librarians and information professionals in the coming years? How do you see yourself leading GSLIS to meet these challenges?

The challenges: diminishing numbers of library schools, increasing technical, political, and intellectual demands on information professionals, and a need to re-establish and re-affirm the traditional mission of libraries (and library schools) in a rapidly changing environment. GSLIS will need to respond to these by providing new paths into librarianship, by developing new curricula, and perhaps most importantly through groundbreaking research.

Are you arriving at GSLIS with any specific goals for the School? Its students, faculty, alumni?

Although it won't be my only focus as dean, I do think the school should position itself, within and outside the university, at the intersection of computer science on the one hand and arts and sciences on the other. Informatics is the short-hand term for this intersection, and I think the library school needs to move aggressively into that domain.

Apart from your numerous professional accomplishments, what can you tell us about yourself and the things you most value?

In both my personal and my professional life, I place the highest value on honesty, fairness, and respect for other people.

And when you have spare time, how do you like to spend it?

Fishing, music, and tinkering are my hobbies.

Colleagues Speak Highly of Unsworth

John Unsworth's achievements have elicited strong endorsement from numerous scholars and administrators with whom he has worked. We are pleased to share a few of these remarks, with the permission of each individual quoted.

"Universities today need librarians who are both grounded in the traditional disciplines--what we refer to as "subject expertise"--but are also capable of assessing and then communicating the impact of new technologies on the conduct of scholarship in these disciplines. What makes John Unsworth's arrival in Urbana so exciting for us in the profession is that he, both in his person and in his philosophy of library education, brings together both of these essential qualities. We are looking forward to the types of librarians who will be graduating from UIUC with Professor Unsworth as dean. I can assure you that we will be seeking to attract these graduates as professional vacancies arise." —Jeffrey Garrett, Assistant University Librarian for Collection Management, Northwestern University Library

"John bridges the world of traditional knowledge and technological innovation. The idea that he understands both the humanities and the sciences in terms of information access and organization is central to the mission of library and information science." —Betsy Hearne, Professor, University of Illinois GSLIS

"John Unsworth is the model of the information professional who will lead us into the 21st century. His work at IATH has been the prototype for digital librarianship. Thanks to his ground breaking work, we know that the creation, dissemination, and preservation of digital information call for the deepest understanding of the discipline, on the one hand, and the mastery of information management techniques on the other. John understands the absolute necessity of the marriage of the two." —Deanna Marcum, President, Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR)

"John is probably the leading figure in humanities computing today, and he's a brilliant academic administrator. He's a traditional humanities scholar, so he really understands the significance of information and technology for science, culture, the arts and the humanities. Probably equally important, he has the leadership to bring those insights to bear on educating a new generation of information professionals." —Allen Renear, Associate Professor, University of Illinois GSLIS

"As we move forward in the complex and conflicted information environment faced by society today, John has a unique ability to focus on pivotal issues, understand the tectonic shifts occurring in the way libraries engage these challenges, and inspire fresh responses to traditional problems. He is a key leader helping the profession prepare for an uncertain future." —Duane Webster, Executive Director, Association of Research Libraries

"John has a wide-ranging interest and engagement in both the print and digital worlds. In the ten years I have known him, he has been intensely involved in issues of scholarly communication, serving as a catalyst for discussion and for work in this area." —Karin Wittenborg, University Librarian, University of Virginia.