Jeffrey MacKie-Mason, university librarian, announces retirement

Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost Benjamin E. Hermalin sent this message to campus on Wednesday:

I write to announce that University Librarian Jeffrey K. MacKie-Mason, who is also a professor in the School of Information and an affiliate professor of the Department of Economics, will be retiring from campus in June 2024. 

Under Jeff’s leadership, the Library has helped the university advance its strategic priorities and support the research, teaching, and learning missions of the UC Berkeley community. Key accomplishments, in partnership with colleagues, have included the following:

• Doubling the Library’s annual philanthropic funding and securing nearly $97 million in funding for three capital projects. 
• Co-chairing the University of California team that has made it possible for 54% of UC-authored articles to be published open access.
• Establishing the Library’s scholarly communications office, which provides the campus community with more than 3,800 copyright, intellectual property, and information policy consultations a year.
• Launching the Library’s digital lifecycle program, dramatically increasing images digitized, enabling the 24/7 course e-reserves program, and vastly improving public access to rare and historical items.
• Initiating the Library’s data services program, providing data discovery, acquisition, management, and preservation support for students and faculty.

In the year ahead, Jeff will continue to lead the Library while furthering a number of ongoing strategic efforts: advancing the Library’s philanthropic fundraising, preparing a new five-year strategic vision, and promoting free and open access to scholarly articles. Additionally, in the coming year, the Library will begin a new construction phase toward completing the renovation of Moffitt Library. 

Please join me in thanking Jeff for his adroit leadership of the UC Berkeley Library in often exceedingly challenging circumstances, as well as for his substantial service and contributions to the university more generally, including as a Builder of Berkeley with his wife, Janet S. Netz. We are also extremely grateful to Jeff for his efforts to reform academic publishing, which have succeeded in lowering the cost of accessing academic scholarship, thus making it more accessible, not only to students and scholars at the University of California, but around the globe. Jeff’s dedication, insights, and unique sense of style will be missed.

Information about the search for the next university librarian will be announced in the coming weeks.