Crane appointed Acting Librarian of the College

Posted 10/12/00

John G. Crane will become Acting Librarian of Dartmouth on Nov. 1, following the retirement of Margaret Otto as Librarian of the College after 21 years in that position. Crane is presently Director of Administrative Services for the libraries and Chair of the Berry Library Building Committee.

In announcing Crane's appointment, Dartmouth Provost Susan Westerberg Prager said, "This is a busy time for the library, and we are fortunate to have someone with John's experience to lead us through this period." A search for a permanent successor to Otto is under way.

A 1969 graduate of Dartmouth, Crane worked in Baker Library as a Student Circulation Assistant during his undergraduate years. After serving in the United States Navy for two years following his graduation from Dartmouth, he joined the staff of the libraries in 1972 as Assistant to the Librarian, undertaking special projects to enhance access to special collections in the library and editing library publications. In 1975 he received a Master of Science in Library Science degree from Simmons College. He became Circulation Services Librarian for Baker Library in 1980, managing several service areas of the Library, including the Circulation Desk, Reserve Reading Services, Sanborn English Library, Baker Stacks, the Library Courier Service and the Storage Library. In 1988 he became Director of Administrative Services, providing fiscal management, human resource support and facilities planning for the library system. As Chair of the Berry Library Building Committee, he has supervised the creation of a state-of-the-art library building to support comprehensive, coordinated library and computing services for faculty and students in the digital era.

The Dartmouth College Library system includes 11 individual libraries around the campus: Baker-Berry Library (humanities & social sciences), Cook Mathematics Library, Dana Biomedical Library, Feldberg Business & Engineering Library, Kresge Physical Sciences Library, Matthews-Fuller Health Sciences Library, Paddock Music Library, Rauner Special Collections Library, Sanborn English Library, Sherman Art Library and the Dartmouth College Storage Library. With a combined staff of 175, these libraries provide a full range of information services to the Dartmouth community. Information resources range from the vast array of digital sources to approximately 2.35 million printed volumes, including subscriptions to over 20,000 journals and other serials.