We’re happy to finally introduce our awesome new director Kate Pitcher! Please give a (belated) welcome when you see her around campus!

In July 2016, I became the Director of the Library, Archives, and Media Center here at St. Mary’s College of Maryland. Prior to SMCM, I was the interim Director of Milne Library at the State University of New York (SUNY) College at Geneseo.

I’ve worked in many different library capacities; including public libraries (I worked for the NYPL branch libraries for a spell) and in academic libraries doing collection development, instruction, government documents, web development, and as head of digital scholarship and publishing. In the latter capacity, I served as the Project Manager for Digital Thoreau, a collaborative digital project which encompassed a social reading platform for Thoreau’s works, a fluid text edition of Thoreau’s Walden manuscripts, and an Omeka digital collection collecting and studying the work and contributions of noted Thoreau scholar, Dr. Walter Harding.

Prior to SMCM, I was also the principal investigator of the grant-funded Open SUNY Textbooks project, which studied how libraries and colleges could develop services and infrastructure to support faculty development of open educational resources, open textbooks, and open pedagogy surrounding classroom teaching and learning. My research and writing interests are in these areas of open digital publishing and changing scholarly communication practices, as well as how libraries are evolving to assist faculty and their institutions in meeting the challenges of a digital, networked, and open academy. I’m also fascinated by the economics of information and the increasing need for democratic and sound information technology and public policy, especially as it relates to higher education.

I’m a native New Yorker (upstate, that is!) and so I’m used to snow, but really excited about being in a southern climate during the winter. I have three children, all in elementary school; one husband; three guinea pigs and a cat. When I have free time I like to read, swim, kayak, and bike. I’m also a politics junkie, so being this close to D.C. is a wonderful turn of events.