Vivian Lewis, who led the reopening of two campus libraries during the pandemic with a third library currently under construction, is continuing her leadership with the new title of associate vice-president and university librarian.
Her ongoing appointment starts July 1, 2024, following approval by McMaster University’s Senate and Board of Governors on April 18.
“Vivian’s reappointment will ensure continuity for the many projects that McMaster University Library has begun under her stewardship,” said Susan Tighe, provost and vice-president (Academic). “I am confident that she will continue to inspire excellence and provide strong leadership for her team, which plays an important role in supporting the teaching, learning and research that happens within our academic community.”
Lewis first came to McMaster library in 1991 as a government information specialist. She became associate university librarian in 2003, then university librarian in 2013.
She says the reappointment is an important endorsement of not just her efforts, but those of everyone working at McMaster University Library.
“It has been an honour and privilege to lead this group for more than a decade,” said Lewis. “Our librarians, staff, and leadership have achieved so much, especially considering the challenges of recent years. I am especially excited about the projects we are planning both now and for the future.”
The COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent library closures forced Lewis and her team to find creative solutions. HathiTrust Emergency Temporary Access Service was activated so more than 830,000 in-copyright books held in the library’s print collections were available for full-text, online reading to McMaster students, faculty, and staff.
McMaster library’s Campus Classroom Technologies team quietly emerged as one of the campus staff groups helping lead the way to support instructors and learners during the turbulent times of that first pandemic year and beyond. Registrar-controlled classrooms were upgraded, with a boom in usage of Echo360 lecture captures.
Meanwhile, revitalization of library spaces continued, with the reopening of the renovated and expanded campus accessible tech space in 2022, as well as a virtual reality and podcast studio at Lyons New Media Centre in 2023. A state-of-the-art Innis Library for business is set to officially open in early 2025 in the McLean Centre for Collaborative Discovery.
The library was a key player in the launch of the university’s first Research Data Management Institutional Strategy, which was accompanied by a growing suite of related services to support McMaster researchers in planning for and managing their research data.
Important additions were made to the renowned William Ready Division of Archives and Research Collections, with archives from politician Stephen Lewis, author Charlotte Gray, and musician Tom Wilson. The library saw the archives of Basil H. Johnston, considered one of the leading North American Indigenous authors of the 20th century, added to the UNESCO Canada Memory of the World Register.
Lewis also successfully created the first diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility strategist role for the libraries in partnership with Health Sciences Library leadership.
Beyond campus, Lewis is a trusted leader in her field. She is an active member of the Ontario Council of University Libraries (OCUL), Canadian Association of Research Libraries (CARL), and the Association of Research Libraries (ARL).
Lewis holds an undergraduate degree from Western University, a master's in Canadian history from York University, and a master's in library and information sciences from the University of Toronto. She is a graduate of the Harvard Institute for Academic Librarians, the Frye Leadership Institute, and the ARL Leadership Fellows Program.
