The U-M Library has announced that John P. Wilkin will serve as the new associate university librarian (AUL) for publishing.
The announcement follows closely on the news that Maria Bonn, former AUL for publishing, will not be returning from a medical leave as she continues her recovery after an accident last year.
Paul Courant, university librarian and dean of libraries, says that Bonn’s leadership as founding AUL for publishing was extraordinary. He adds, “The value and intelligence of her work are manifest in MPublishing, the library publishing enterprise that she created and nurtured.” MPublishing comprises the library’s publishing and copyright operations as well as the University of Michigan Press.
Courant has been serving as interim AUL for publishing.
Wilkin, who will continue as AUL for library information technology and executive director of HathiTrust, long has been engaged with issues germane to scholarly publishing, among them digitization, the rise of the open access movement, and the disruption to traditional modes of scholarly communication wrought by technology.
“John’s engagement with these issues, along with his role in helping to define the library of the future and his proven ability to lead, position us well to renew MPublishing’s role in developing and defining scholarly publishing in the 21st century,” Courant says.
