Deborah Jakubs Reappointed as Duke Librarian

Deborah Jakubs, the Rita Di Giallonardo Holloway University Librarian and vice provost for library affairs at Duke University, has been reappointed to a new term that runs through June 30, 2016, Duke Provost Peter Lange announced Wednesday.

Jakubs administers the university's William R. Perkins Library System, which consists of several libraries and a state-of-the-art shelving facility. She also oversees the Center for Instructional Technology, which promotes the effective application of information technology in teaching and learning across the university.

Jakubs, who became university librarian in January 2005, also works with Duke's deans and chief information officer to ensure that the libraries are contributing fully to the teaching and research initiatives of the university.

"Deborah Jakubs has done a superb job as university librarian," Lange said. "Her review was one of the finest I have received as provost. It underlined what is already known to so many in our Duke community and beyond, that under Deborah's leadership Duke Libraries has assumed a position of national and international leadership in taking university libraries into the 21st century. We have enormously increased access through digitization and the development of digital collections, transformed the role of librarians and their interaction with all those in our user communities, making them active collaborators and assets in the research and learning processes, and made Perkins/Bostock a pillar of our learning community.

"And this process has been and remains one of continuous improvement with Deborah's strong and balanced leadership on campus, with our supporters and with the broader library community."

Senior Duke officials are reviewed in the fourth year of their appointments. Review committees that include faculty and administrators consider comments from the Duke community on matters including the individual's effectiveness, strengths and weaknesses, and leadership.

Under Jakubs' leadership, the library has been transformed into a technologically advanced system. For instance, digital holdings at Duke have expanded rapidly, and include a collection of historic TV commercials launched in July 2009 called AdViews (http://library.duke.edu/digitalcollections/adviews) that, within six months, had more than 1 million downloads or views.

With more than 6 million volumes, the libraries at Duke comprise one of the 10 largest private research library systems in the United States. The system‘s holdings also include 17.7 million manuscripts, 1.2 million public documents and tens of thousands of films and videos.

Jakubs is also an adjunct associate professor of history at Duke, and has served as the director (1997-99) and associate director (1995-97, 2000-02) of the University of North Carolina-Duke University Consortium in Latin American Studies. She came to Duke in 1983 and worked as director of collections services for the library system before being named university librarian.