Dr. Pickle will become Occidental’s next College Librarian and Director of the Academic Commons.
Dear Oxy Community:
I am pleased to announce that Dr. Sarah Pickle will become Occidental’s next College Librarian and Director of the Academic Commons. Her first day will be Monday, July 22nd.
Sarah brings to Oxy nine years of progressively responsible library leadership experience at the Claremont Colleges Library, where she is currently the Associate Dean for Operations and Strategy, a role that she has served in since 2021. Prior to her time at Claremont, Sarah was a Council on Libraries and Information Resources postdoctoral fellow at the University of Pennsylvania and was an analyst at the non-profit educational strategy organization, Ithaka S&R.
Sarah’s academic background includes an undergraduate degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, a PhD in Comparative Literature from Cornell, and several years of university-level teaching experience, including teaching in Cornell’s first year writing program. Sarah has numerous academic publications on topics such as digital skill acquisition, library usage, collections development, and important trends in librarianship, such as open educational resources and assessment.
I want to thank the College Librarian and Director of the Academic Commons search committee (Kathryn Leonard, Caro Brighouse, Kristi Upson-Saia, Clair Morrissey, John McCormack, Sarah Parramore, Brian Chambers, Kathleen Makarewicz, and Isaiah Thomas) for their diligent work to identify the top candidates from a strong pool, and for all members of the community who participated in the search and provided feedback to the committee.
I also wish to take the opportunity to thank Kevin Mulroy for his 5 years of dedicated service to Occidental as the College Librarian and Director of the Academic Commons. Kevin’s last day is June 21st, and until Sarah starts on July 22nd, Brian Chambers, Senior Director of Administration in the library will be the point-person for matters that cannot wait until Sarah’s arrival.
While I will have moved on from Occidental by the time Sarah arrives on campus, I am thrilled that Sarah has accepted the College’s offer and wish her the very best as she joins this wonderful community.