Keynote Speaker
Dr. Rush G. Miller has served as University Librarian and Director of the University Library System since 1994. He also holds a joint appointment as Professor in the Department of Library and Information Science. In addition, he holds the Hillman Endowed Chair. He holds the M.A. and Ph.D. in Medieval English History and the M.L.S. in library science. Before coming to Pitt he was Dean of Libraries at Bowling Green State in Ohio for eight years. He has also served as Director of Libraries at Sam Houston State and Delta State Universities. His career as a library director spans 33 years.
Since joining Pitt, Dr. Miller has become a leader in change management and information technology management. Beginning in 1996, he led the redesign of traditional technical services at Pitt, reducing staff size from 70 to 29 and saving 1.1 million dollars, freeing up funds to pursue an aggressive information technology path. Today the ULS’ D-Scribe Program of digital publishing boasts more than 65 successful digitization projects, several open access e-print servers serving entire disciplines, an institutional repository, a fully implemented/mandated ETD program, a platform for managing and publishing ejournals, and a collaboration with the Pitt University Press to digitize and mount as open access all 500+ backlist titles. In addition, the University of Pittsburgh boasts one of the largest arrays of licensed digital resources in the US. While developing information technology, Pitt has also added more than 1.5 million volumes to print collections, renovated most of the 20 libraries in the system, and built a remote facility with state-of-the-art facilities for technical services, a preservation laboratory, archival collections, Information Systems (with 110 servers and a large staff of systems analysts), a Digital Research Library (responsible for digitization of print collections), and a high density storage facility with a 3 million volume capacity. The ULS is halfway through an ambitious project to digitize and mount on the web the entire contents of the Darlington Library, one of the finest historical libraries in America with 11,000 books plus historical maps, atlases, manuscripts and other rare materials, many of which are unique.
His programs in opening Chinese resources to world scholars through a collaborative with the key universities in China have had a profound effect on scholarly access to remote resources and have become a model for international global resource sharing. In addition, he initiated an extensive training and staff exchange program with more than 20 university libraries in China and Korea.
Dr. Miller was involved in the establishment of both OhioLINK and PALCI, two statewide consortia which have had major impact on modern library developments and resource sharing. He received the first PALCI Leadership Award in 2004.
The Pitt Libraries hold 5.3 million books and 57,000 journals and have a total budget in excess of $28 million.
Dr. Miller has been active as an author and speaker on issues as diverse as digital libraries, global library resources, collection development of digital libraries, organizational development, diversity, and management. His most recent effort is a co-authored book entitled, Beyond Survival: Managing Academic Libraries in Transition by Libraries Unlimited; and contributions to new books on leadership and services to the disabled. He has served on a number of boards and advisory committees, including the boards of ARL, PALINET, and PALCI in the past few years. Currently he is on the editorial board for The Journal of Academic Librarianship.