Mr. Arnold Hirshon

Associate Provost & University Librarian, Case Western Reserve University

Arnold Hirshon has been the Associate Provost and University Librarian at Case Western Reserve University since August 2010. His previous positions included service as Executive Director of NELINET (a library consortium) where he launched many new programs, including consulting services, digital services, and open source software support and hosting. After NELINET merged with LYRASIS in late 2009, he became Chief Strategist and Executive Consultant.

Prior to NELINET and LYRASIS, Hirshon served as Vice Provost for Information Resources (Chief Information Officer) at Lehigh University, where he was responsible for university computing and libraries. He also was University Librarian at Wright State University (chief administrator for both the academic and medical libraries), Associate Director of Libraries at Virginia Commonwealth University, and served in library administrative posts at Duke University and Wayne State University.

Hirshon is a Past President of the Association for Library Collections & Technical Services. Among his many other service assignments, he was a member of the Executive Committee of Counter, and the Vice-Chair of the OhioLINK Library Advisory Committee. He recently was named as a member of the Management Board of EIFL.NET, an international association of library consortia in fifty developing countries in Central and Eastern Europe, Africa, and Asia.

A highly experienced international consultant on issues of organizational, strategic and business planning, facility redesign, operations management and assessment, and technology integration. Hirshon currently was the chief advisor for a Carnegie Foundation-funded project to develop new ways to employ technology to advance faculty research at major research universities of South Africa. In addition, Hirshon served as a consultant for EIFL.NET. Within the United States, his clients included many major academic institutions.

Hirshon has an extensive scholarly record that includes many monographs, including the Library Strategic Planning Toolkit (co-author: Stephen Spohn), and Outsourcing Library Technical Services (co-author: Barbara Winters). He is also the author of numerous articles about strategic management, organizational design, technology, leadership, information service integration, assessment and optimization of operations, and non-profit management.

A frequent lecturer nationally and internationally, Hirshon has given lectures in nearly forty countries on six continents on a wide range of topics, including organizational management, trend spotting and analysis, technology planning, and operations assessment and optimization.