Star of the Week: Patrick Carr, East Carolina University

Name: Patrick Carr
Title: Head of Electronic and Continuing Resource Acquisitions
Organization: East Carolina University
Address: Patrick Carr, Head of Electronic and Continuing Resource Acquisitions,
Joyner Library, East Carolina University,
Greenville, NC 27858
Phone: 252-328-2266
Fax: 252-328-4843
Email: carrp@ecu.edu

Born and lived: I grew up in Leeper, Pennsylvania, which is close to Clarion, Pennsylvania, which is about halfway between Erie and Pittsburgh. I have previously lived in Olean NY, Rochester NY, and Starkville MS. I currently live in Greenville NC.

Professional career and activities: I started my career in libraries in 2002 with a part-time job as a page at the main public library in Rochester, New York. I have built on that initial experience with serials librarian and department head positions at Mississippi State University and East Carolina University. I stay active in the profession through involvement in organizations like NASIG and through contributions to the professional literature.

In my Spare Time: Reading, watching movies, hiking, listening to the albums of Omar Rodriguez-Lopez.

Favorite Books: Ulysses by James Joyce. Letting Go by Philip Roth. Against Interpretation by Susan Sontag.

Pet Peeves: Inefficient meetings. Also, misuse of the word “literally.” As in: “I’ve literally been glued to my computer all day long.”

Philosophy: Fail better.

Goal I hope to achieve five years from nowhow/where do I see the industry in five years: I’m focusing my answer on the portion of the industry I know best: academic libraries. I think that we are going to see an extension of trends that have been traced in Ithaka’s triennial surveys of university faculty. Specifically, I think that academic libraries are going to continue to play an important role as agents responsible for acquiring and providing access to (primarily–perhaps almost exclusively–online) resources in support of research, teaching, and learning. But as a central gateway into the research and information seeking processes, I think that libraries are in a slow but inevitable decline.