Robert Miller Leaves Internet Archive to Become New CEO of LYRASIS
From Today’s News:
LYRASIS, one of the nation’s largest non-profit membership associations serving libraries, archives and museums, has announced the selection of Robert Miller as its new Chief Executive Officer (CEO), effective June 15, 2015. Miller will fill the position previously held by Kate Nevins, who is retiring after more than 20 years with LYRASIS and SOLINET, one of its predecessor organizations. The selection was made after a rigorous national search and was finalized by the LYRASIS Board of Trustees after their April 30, 2015 meeting.
“We are extremely pleased to announce this new appointment,” said Cynthia L. Henderson, Executive Director of the Louis Stokes Health Sciences Library at Howard University and Chair of the LYRASIS Board of Trustees. “We sought the best and are delighted that Robert Miller has accepted our offer. Robert will be visible in our partner community and will represent the values and mission of LYRASIS. He will be comfortable leading and guiding LYRASIS to further greatness while meeting community needs in innovative ways that will shape future programs, initiatives and the ways we serve our members.”
Kate Nevins, LYRASIS’ current Executive Director, says “I think this appointment marks an excellent decision by our Board of Trustees, and I believe Robert Miller will be a strong leader for the organization. His background working with both technology solutions and the library, archive and museum communities will be a perfect fit for the future needs of our members. I look forward to what is ahead for LYRASIS under his direction.”
Robert Miller comes to LYRASIS from Internet Archive, a non-profit library of millions of free books, movies, software, music and more. While there he served as General Manager of Digital Libraries, building the Digital Libraries Division from the ground up and resulting in more than 600 million digitized pages globally available with more than 30 million monthly downloads. His work included building key partnerships with state librarians, top libraries, archives and museums across the United States, leading library consortia across North America, and global grant-funding institutions and technology company leaders such as MSN. Prior to his tenure with Internet Archive, he was founder and co-founder of start-up companies, including as CEO of an Israeli technology company that was commercializing specialized search technology and as co-founder and President of an information services company where he developed and helped patent a consumer behavior referral technology that utilized free, user-generated content to improve retail sales. He holds a Bachelor of Science degree from Lehigh University.
“I look forward to continuing to serve and partner with the library, archive and museum communities in this new capacity,” remarks Miller. “I have so much respect for these fields because of their innovative technologies, forward-thinking solutions and invaluable contributions to their communities and users. LYRASIS has long been a partner to those institutions and I welcome the chance to build new opportunities and collaborations into the future.”
Filed under: Archives and Special Collections, Associations and Organizations, Funding, Libraries, News, Patrons and Users
About Gary Price
Gary Price (gprice@gmail.com) is a librarian, writer, consultant, and frequent conference speaker based in the Washington D.C. metro area. He earned his MLIS degree from Wayne State University in Detroit. Price has won several awards including the SLA Innovations in Technology Award and Alumnus of the Year from the Wayne St. University Library and Information Science Program. From 2006-2009 he was Director of Online Information Services at Ask.com.