Geoffrey Robert Little

Associate University Librarian, Scholarly Communication, Concordia University Library
Director, Concordia University Press

Contact information

Email:

Geoffrey.Little@concordia.ca

ORCID:

0000000184674149

Biography

Since 2018 I have been Associate University Librarian for Scholarly Communication at Concordia University and Director of Concordia University Press. My primary duties are to scholarly communication writ large including digital preservation; copyright; open educational resources; the university's institutional repository; publishing; and, until January 2023, interlibrary loans. As Director of Concordia University Press, I am responsible for the operations and editorial program of a non-profit publisher of peer-reviewed books that cross disciplinary boundaries and propel scholarship into new areas. Within the Concordia Library, I have also held the positions of Scholarly Communications Librarian (2014-18) and Collections Coordinator (2010-14). Before coming to Montreal, I was Communications Coordinator at the Yale University Library (2007-10) where I managed outreach and public affairs and contributed to the Library's instruction, collection development, and advancement programs.

My research interests are varied and I have published articles or chapters on Florence Nightingale's childhood library; newsprint production and consumption in North America in the first half of the twentieth century; philanthropic library programs during the Great Depression; education for French Canadian librarians before 1960; the history of publishing and electronic books, and collection development in academic libraries. My work has appeared in American Periodicals, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Information & Culture, Oxford Companion to the Book, Journal of Academic Librarianship, Journal of Scholarly Publishing, and Papers of the Bibliographical Society of Canada, among other venues. In 2022-23 I was the Patricia Fleming Visiting Fellow in Bibliography and Book History at the University of Toronto and a Visiting Scholar at Massey College. In 2020 I was awarded the Bibliographical Society of Canada's Bernard Amtmann Fellowship. Earlier in my career I was a member of the editorial board of the Journal of Academic Librarianship and editor of its Managing Technology section.

I have an Honours BA (with distinction) in History and an MISt from the University of Toronto, as well as an MA in History from Concordia. For several years (2014-18) I taught a graduate course on the history of books and printing at McGill University's School of Information Studies. I have been active in the Bibliographical Society of Canada and the Association of University Presses and I am a member of the American Printing History Association; the Society for the History of Authorship, Reading, and Publishing (SHARP); the Elizabethan Club of Yale University; and the Grolier Club.

Selected publications

“’The Relics … What are they?’: Locating Florence Nightingale in Her Childhood Library” in Collection Thinking: Within and Without Libraries, Archives, and Museums, edited by Jason Camlot, Martha Langford, and Linda Morra, 170–80. London: Routledge, 2022.

“’Print paper ought to be as free as the air and water’: American Newspapers, Canadian Newsprint, and the Payne-Aldrich Tariff, 1909–13,” American Periodicals 32, no. 1 (2022): 53–69.

“Susan Charlotte Buchan [née Grosvenor], Baroness Tweedsmuir of Elsfield (1883–1977),” Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, August 2019.

“’Save the Cross Campus’: Library Design and Protests at Yale, 1968–69,” Information and Culture 53, no. 2 (2018): 152–74.

“Old Traditions and New Technologies: Creating Concordia University Press,” Journal of Scholarly Publishing, 49, no. 2 (2018): 213–30.

“Teaching Librarians to be Censors: Library Education for Francophones in Quebec, 1937–61.” In Censorship and the Limits of the Literary: A Global View, edited by Nicole Moore, 93–103. London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2015.

“Introduction: What is the History of (Electronic) Books?” Papers of the Bibliographical Society of Canada 51 (Spring 2013): 11–17.

“’The people must have plenty of good books’: The Lady Tweedsmuir Prairie Library Scheme, 1936–40.” Library & Information History 28 (June 2012): 103–16.

“Collection Development for Theological Education,” in Library Collection Development for Professional Programs: Trends and Best Practices, ed. Sara Holder (Hershey, PA: IGI Global, 2012), 112–27.

“Collection Development in Library and Information Science at ARL Libraries.” Collection Building 30 (2011): 135–39.

“Eton College,” “Inns of Court Libraries,” “Royal Library, Windsor,” and “Royal Society Library.” In The Oxford Companion to the Book, edited by Michael Suarez, SJ, and H.R. Woudhuysen. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010.

“’I think Canada has a future’: William Inglis Morse and the Canadian Collection at Yale University Library.” Papers of the Bibliographical Society of Canada 47 (Spring 2009): 75–91.

Book reviews

Review of Books in My Life, by G. Thomas Tanselle. Papers of the Bibliographical Society of Canada 60 (2023): https://doi.org/10.33137/pbsc.v60i1.41085.

Review of The Intimacy of Paper in Early and Nineteenth-Century American Literature, by Jonathan Senchyne. Papers of the Bibliographical Society of Canada 59 (2022): https://doi.org/10.33137/pbsc.v59i1.37495.

Review of The American Antiquarian Society: A Bicentennial History, by Philip F. Gura. Papers of the Bibliographical Society of Canada 52, no. 2 (2014): 474–76.

Review of A Social History of Books and Libraries from Cuneiform to Bytes, by Patrick M. Valentine. portal: Libraries and the Academy 14 (January 2014): 123–24.

Review of Places to Grow: Public Libraries and Communities in Ontario, 1930–2000, by Lorne Bruce. Library & Information History 28 (2012): 151–52.

Selected Conference Papers and Presentations

“Evaluating the University Library-University Press Relationship: Some Notes from Montreal.” World Library and Information Congress satellite/Library Publishing Special Interest Group preconference, The Hague, Netherlands, 19 August 2023.

Moderator/organizer, “What University Librarians Want Publishers to Know.” Annual meeting of the Association of University Presses, Detroit, MI, 13 June 2019.

Moderator/organizer, “Where the Stress Falls: Exploring Challenges in the University Library-University Press Dynamic.” Charleston Conference, Charleston, SC, 7 November 2018.

“Relics in the Magic Circle, or, Looking for Florence Nightingale in Florence Nightingale’s Childhood Library.” Collection Thinking Conference, Concordia University, Montreal, QC,

13 June 2018.

“University Libraries and University Presses: Working Towards True Collaboration or Creating a University Press from Scratch.” Library Publishing Forum, Minneapolis, MN, 22 May 2018.

“The Lovely Treachery of Canadian Book Publishing: Current Circumstances, Future Directions.” Panelist at a joint meeting of the Bibliographical Society of Canada and Canadian Association for the Study of Book Culture, Toronto, ON, 30 May 2017.

“’This very extensive and almost unknown portion of the empire’: The Montreal Natural History Society’s Survey of Rupert’s Land.” Canadian Historical Association annual conference, Ottawa, ON, 3 June 2015.

“Old Traditions and New Technologies: Envisioning Concordia University Press.” Modern Language Association annual convention, Vancouver, BC, 8 January 2015.

“’Print paper ought to be as free as the air and water’: American Newspapers, Canadian Newsprint, and the Payne-Aldrich Tariff, 1909–13.” American Printing History Association annual conference, Oakland, CA, 21 October 2014.

“’Adaptées aux milieux canadiens-français et catholiques’: Educating Librarians to be Censors in Quebec, 1937––61.” History of Libraries Seminar, Institute of Historical Research, University of London, UK, 7 May 2013.

“’A Campus is For Students, So We Must Help Plan It’: Student Activism and Library Design at Yale, 1968–69.” Library History Research Forum, American Library Association annual conference, Chicago, IL, 30 June 2013.

“What I Wished I Had Learned in Library School: Skills for Administrators of Collection Development.” Panelist at the American Library Association annual conference, Anaheim, CA, 23 June 2012.

Moderator/organizer, “Current Issues in LGBTQ Libraries and Librarianship,” Canadian Library Association annual conference, Ottawa, ON, 2 June 2012.

“Scholarly E-Book Packages: Access to Monographs in the Humanities and Social Sciences.” Presented with David Macaulay at the Quebec Library Association annual conference, Montreal, QC, 3 May 2012.

“It’s Not Me, It’s You: Breaking Up with Perpetual Access.” Presented with Kirsten Huhn at the XXXI Charleston Conference: Issues in Serial and Book Acquisition, Charleston, SC, 4 November 2011.

“’We first saw the Southern Prairies in the tragic days’: Exploring the History of the Lady Tweedsmuir Prairie Library Scheme, 1936–40.” Canadian Library Association annual conference, Halifax, NS, 31 May 2011.

“Mobile Technologies at Yale University Library.” Standing Committee on Professional Development forum, New Haven, CT, 1 December 2009.