A Message From Provost John Miller

Members of the University Community,

I am very pleased to announce that Isaac Gilman, who has served as interim director of Pacific University Libraries since January, has been chosen to continue as director indefinitely.

As you may remember, Isaac succeeded Marita Kunkel as interim director of Pacific University Libraries in January. Marita has transitioned to an associate vice provost position in Academic Affairs, where she is leading our re-accreditation process with the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities. 

Isaac’s selection to lead Pacific University Libraries follows an extensive evaluation process that included feedback from Library faculty and staff, students, and faculty and staff from throughout the university.

Isaac earned his master of library and information studies degree from the University of British Columbia immediately prior to joining our library staff in 2006 where he began at our Hillsboro Campus. He became an assistant professor in 2008, assumed the role of scholarly communications and research services librarian in 2010 and was promoted to associate professor in 2014.

As librarian for scholarly communication and publishing services, Isaac has taught courses in both the Colleges of Arts & Sciences and College of Health Professions, managed the university’s CommonKnowledge repository, led the development of the Libraries’ journal publishing services, and spearheaded the launch of Pacific University Press, a hybrid open access publisher that provides opportunities for authors to share their scholarly and creative work. As first an associate director and now director of the Pacific University Press, Isaac oversaw all facets of the Press’ initial offering, “When the Rewards Can Be So Great: Essays on Writing and the Writing Life”, a compilation of selected crafts talks delivered by faculty of Pacific’s Master’s of Fine Arts in Writing program edited by Kwame Dawes.

Isaac served on our Institutional Review Board from 2009-2013, including the last two years as co-chair. His professional service also includes serving on the inaugural editorial board of the Journal of Copyright, Education, and Librarianship, which launches this year; and as a co-founder and co-editor of the Journal of Librarianship and Scholarly Communication (2011-2015), which is published by Pacific University Libraries. 

Additionally, Isaac served as president of the Oregon chapter of the Association of College & Research Libraries from 2013-2014 and as a member of the Library Publishing Coalition Board from 2014 to earlier this year. He recently assumed the chairship of the Orbis Cascade Alliance Content Creation and Dissemination Team and is a member of the Alliance Council. 

Isaac has published numerous papers on scholarly communication, as well as a book, “Library scholarly communications programs: Legal and ethical considerations”, (Oxford: Chandos Publishing, 2013). He is the recipient of many awards and honors, including a 2014 Endeavour Executive Fellowship through the Australia Department of Education, and Pacific’s Junior Faculty Award (2011).

Please join me in congratulating Isaac on his appointment as the director of Pacific University Libraries.