In February 2025, University Librarian, Dean of Libraries, and Professor of English John M. Unsworth announced his plans to retire, after overseeing a tenure marked by a once-in-a-century project and the navigation of an unprecedented global challenge. In August he departed from the Library after nearly a decade at the helm. “I hope I left it better than I found it,” he said. He did.

Unsworth first came to UVA in the 1980s to pursue a Ph.D. in English, after earning a bachelor’s degree from Amherst College and a master’s degree from Boston University in the subject. Although he is quick to note that UVA’s is only the second library he has led (the first being Brandeis University’s), he spent 2003-2012 as Dean of the Graduate School of Library and Information Science at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. When he signed on as Dean at UVA, he brought with him a familiarity with UVA and its library system, having studied in Alderman Library while earning his Ph.D. and then, after four years on the English faculty at North Carolina State University, returned to direct the Institute for Advanced Technology in the Humanities (housed in Alderman) and teach English. He spent ten years at IATH, where he established himself as a pioneer in the Digital Humanities.

The renovation of Alderman Library and its reopening as the Edgar Shannon Library was Unsworth’s most consequential project as dean. The renovation was extensive and included a major inventory of Alderman’s collections, the completion of a bar-coding effort that began in the 1990s, the expansion of Ivy Library to hold Alderman’s collections during renovation — and then the movement of those collections out of the building and into Ivy Stacks or to a browsing collection created on the first floor of Clemons, all this before construction even began. The renovation replaced Alderman’s stacks with new shelving and multi-use space, and the building’s historic envelope was completely renewed — creating a 230,000 square foot building full of light, people, and resources, which Unsworth describes as “the library for UVA’s next century and beyond.” Despite a setback when bedrock was struck digging out the building’s new basement, the project was completed (including the basement) in three and a half years. “We wanted to make sure that no one graduated without the opportunity to step into the library,” said Unsworth. “We made it.”

Coinciding with the renovation was an unforeseen challenge: the COVID-19 pandemic that shut down so much of the world. Along with most UVA facilities, Library locations closed in March 2020, and staff pivoted to assist with online learning. This was the time of “contactless pickup” of materials, the “virtual library desk,” and massive instructional scanning — Library staff scanned hundreds of thousands of pages of material necessary for remote instruction. As the University slowly reopened, the Library adjusted to the return of in-person instruction, along with social distancing, face masks, new rules about food and drink, and more. By the time the University returned to pre-COVID-19 norms, Library staff had helped thousands of students, faculty, and others in the University community to weather the pandemic and maintain access to materials for teaching and learning with as little disruption as possible.

From the beginning of his term as dean, Unsworth was committed to maintaining and improving the Library’s collections. During his tenure he oversaw major acquisitions to Special Collections in varied fields, including the Guanhailou Collection of rare Chinese materials, the Iselin Collection of Humor, the John L. Nau III Civil War History Collection, the papers of political cartoonist Patrick Oliphant, the Stanley and Lucie Weinstein Buddhist and Asian Studies Library, the Gregory Prince Mormon Studies Collection, and much more. The Library also continued to build its databases, e-books, and circulating collections, in such fields of faculty interest as children’s and young adult literature (including a pandemic education collection), Indigenous studies, and Caribbean studies. He worked with librarians here and across the Commonwealth to increase access and affordability in higher education by building shared print collections and repositories of course materials, rethinking and renegotiating publisher agreements, and establishing Aperio, an open access publishing initiative at UVA. He also led long-term partnerships to expand the reach and visibility of The HistoryMakers, the world’s largest archive of African American oral history, and to create a national infrastructure for making educational materials accessible for those with print disabilities. He brought the Scholars’ Lab and IATH together to create the Library’s Digital Humanities Center, a hub for research, teaching, and experimentation. And he encouraged increased outreach within UVA and to the surrounding community through exhibitions, workshops, lectures, presentations, and other programming. 

Unsworth is also proud of his work in making the Library a better place for staff. Upon his arrival, he met one-on-one with each staff member to hear their perspectives and to help foster a culture of openness, collaboration, appreciation, transparency, and fairness. Features such as regular town halls and staff newsletters, the involvement of many Library staff in the Strategic Resource Allocation Project that considered every allocation in the Library’s budget, and the creation of a Library Staff Council have helped to promote open and informed communication at all levels of the organization. During Unsworth’s time as dean, the Library successfully established a career ladder for librarians in University Staff positions, as well as a library track in the University's Academic General Faculty. The Library’s comprehensive review of compensation at the individual level provided a baseline of fair pay, and its robust “You Belong Here” onboarding program for staff makes sure that every new staff cohort is given a thorough and thoughtful introduction to their organization and their coworkers. The result has been a record of successful recruiting and retention of talented staff across the Library. In an early interview on the Coy Barefoot Show, Unsworth once said “the best thing about libraries is that they make it so easy to find librarians” — another way of saying that library staff are the most valuable resource that libraries have to offer.

At UVA, Unsworth and his wife, Maggie, lived in Pavilion II for several years before moving to Scottsville. (When asked if he ever saw any Lawn streakers, Unsworth replied, “Yes, but in this as in other things there are those who procrastinate, so the rate of streaking accelerates as the end of semester approaches.”) In retirement, home base will be Scottsville (where the oldest grandchildren live across the street), but there are also grandchildren in New England and Guatemala ...  Otherwise he’ll be applying himself to his hobbies: motorcycle riding, photography, and fishing. He also plans to do more reading. “I look forward to enjoying the many great places in the Library where you can get lost in a book” Unsworth said.
 
This article is indebted to reporting done by Alice Berry and Mike Mather of UVA Today, including the February announcement of Unsworth’s retirement plans.