Thomas Hickerson formerly served as Vice Provost for Libraries and Cultural Resources and University Librarian at the University of Calgary, 2006-2018. Libraries and Cultural Resources is a principal division of the University, combining the university libraries, university art museums, and the University of Calgary Press. Hickerson exercised principal responsibility for the programmatic design of the Taylor Family Digital Library and a high-density storage facility, a $205 million capital project of the University of Calgary.

Tom came to Calgary after an extensive career as an archivist, technology innovator, and library administrator at Cornell University. In 2001, he was named a Computerworld Honors Program Laureate in recognition of his contributions to the “use of information technologies for the benefit of society.”

He is a Fellow and former President of the Society of American Archivists and served on the Executive Committee of the International Council on Archives. Since coming to Calgary, he has served as President of the Canadian Association of Research Libraries, as a Steering Committee member of the Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition (SPARC), and as a member of the Board of Directors of the Association of Research Libraries. He is also founding-creator of the “Designing Libraries for the 21st Century” conference series.

He has in recent years served as lead investigator for Multidisciplinary Research Infrastructure: The Role of 21st Century Libraries; Media Reformatting and Digital Preservation Planning Project: The EMI Music Canada Archive at the University of Calgary; Academic Research and University Libraries: Creating a New Model for Collaboration; and Renewing Access to Culturally Significant Audiovisual Recordings (all sponsored by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation).