Gabriel McKee appointed first Librarian for Collections and Services in the ISAW Library

Gabriel McKee has been appointed Librarian for Collections and Services in the ISAW Library, effective March 1, 2016.

Gabriel joined the ISAW Library in 2014 as an Associate Research Scholar and Cataloger and soon came to play an instrumental role in many of the core areas of the Library's work, from collections and cataloging to digital projects and outreach. Previously, he was Head Archivist for Boo-Hooray, an archives processing company and art gallery specializing in 20th counterculture. In addition to his MLIS, Gabriel holds a Master's degree in Theological Studies from the Harvard Divinity School and among his many and varied academic interests he counts patristics, medieval mystical literature, the intersection of science fiction and theology, metadata and scholarly communication in ancient studies, and small press bibliography (you may see him pursue some of these interests on the ISAW Library Blog). He is the author of The Persistence of Poe: The Edgar Allan Poe Collection of Susan Jaffe Tane (2014), The Gospel According to Science Fiction (2007), and Pink Beams of Light From the God in the Gutter: The Science Fictional Religion of Philip K. Dick (2003) and he is currently working on a bibliographic history of the West Virginia-based fringe publisher Saucerian Books, a guide to best practices for the cataloging of comics and graphic novels, and a study of the fourth-century heresiarch Priscillian of Avila.

The ISAW Librarian for Collections and Services is a new faculty position in the NYU Division of Libraries, part of the strategic reorganization of the work and staffing of the ISAW Library, as it pivots from its initial focus on bulk acquisition and experimental digital projects to a mission characterized by systematic and ongoing collection building, the refinement and extension of its core digital initiatives (such as the Ancient World Digital Library), and the development of new services, projects, and programming integrated with other departments and initiatives within ISAW and the NYU Division of Libraries. As Librarian for Collections and Services, Gabriel will be responsible for managing ISAW's growing print and digital collections and developing new public services and instructional offerings at ISAW Library. The search committee was impressed with Gabriel's initiative and record of achievement and was unanimous in its opinion that he not only has the skills and experience necessary to be a successful member of the ISAW staff and the NYU Library faculty, but also the requisite vision to advance the ISAW Library's projects and strategic goals.