Thomas C. Leonard

Kenneth and Dorothy Hill University Librarian

University Librarian Thomas C. Leonard has published several books on the role of the press in society and the origins of modern American journalism, including The Power of the Press: The Birth of American Political Reporting and News for All: America's Coming-of-Age with the Press. He is a professor in the Graduate School of Journalism, where he also served as associate dean for more than a decade.

As University Librarian, Leonard manages Doe, Moffitt, Bancroft, and East Asian Libraries, as well as 15 subject specialty libraries. The library system includes over 10 million volumes, 100 thousand serials, 4 million pictorial images, 80 thousand manuscripts, a payroll of about 950 people (including part-time students) and an annual budget of $42 million.

Since assuming his position in 2001, he has overseen the building of the new Jean Grey Hargrove Music Library, and of the new C. V. Starr East Asian Library. The Great Rooms in the Doe Library have been renovated, and work began in 2006 on a Center for New Media and a remodeled and expanded Bancroft Library.

After earning a 1973 Ph.D. in history from Berkeley, Leonard taught American history at Columbia University. He joined the faculty at the School of Journalism in 1976. At Berkeley, he has chaired the Academic Freedom and the Library Committees of the Academic Senate, as well as co-chaired the Digital Library Advisory Committee

He is the author of dozens of magazine articles and reference book essays on politics, history and the media, and has served as a consultant for projects at the Library of Congress and numerous other organizations. Active on several University of California boards, including the Systemwide Library and Scholarly Information Advisory Committees, he is also involved in academic library organizations on the state and national level.

The whole Leonard family makes broad use of libraries: his wife is a psychologist at UC San Francisco; his daughter is a graduate student in Animal Behavior at UC Davis; and his son is a graduate student in Scandinavian Studies at the University of Washington.

January 2008