University of Virginia librarian John Unsworth, who oversaw a four-year renovation to the main UVA library and a two-year pandemic that shut down the libraries and all of Grounds, has announced he will retire at the end of the academic year.
His nearly decade-long post as dean of UVA libraries marks his third and final role at the University. In the 1980s, Unsworth was a doctoral student and lecturer in the Department of English. He left Grounds for a faculty position at North Carolina State University but returned to Charlottesville as an associate professor in 1993. Unsworth then departed for the University of Illinois and later Brandeis University, where he was a vice provost for the school’s library, before again returning to UVA to oversee the University’s eight libraries.
“I hope I lived up to the expectations of the people who hired me,” Unsworth said. “Because, you know, that was a little bit of a stretch. I’d only run one library for four years before coming here, and it was a much smaller library. I still appreciate the confidence they had in me.”
When Unsworth accepted the dean position at UVA, he knew the main library on Grounds would close for a nearly four-year renovation. What he didn’t know is that the COVID-19 pandemic would shutter the facility – and all of Grounds – even earlier.
When the virus was thought to spread through touch, he oversaw a book quarantine where recently handled volumes were kept out of circulation long enough to let any viral remnants die. As the understanding of the virus evolved, Unsworth’s staff began separating students in the then-Alderman Library’s spaces, a challenging task in a space where Hoos like to study together.
Finally, when the University switched to online learning, more than 50 members of the library staff volunteered to ensure the technology worked correctly. The staff also ramped up its plans to digitize library resources to assist remote professors and students. “We did a massive amount, like hundreds of thousands of pages on instructional scanning,” he said. “We were really cranking things out.”
Unsworth’s role as library dean is the third time he’s passed through the University. He was a graduate student and lecturer in the 1980s, returned as an associate professor in the 1990s, and returned to lead the libraries in 2016. (Photo by Matt Riley, University Communications)
Unsworth said he remains proud of the work his staff accomplished in that time. “They did a great job,” he said.
When the pandemic subsided and students returned to Grounds, Unsworth’s focus shifted to the main library’s $161 million renovation and a renaming to honor the University’s fourth president, Edgar Shannon.
“I knew about the renovation coming in, and I regarded that as a great opportunity,” he said. “That was something that had been planned for 20 years, but final plans weren’t drawn up until I got here. It is a privilege to be in the seat when something like that finally happens.”
A favorite memory of the project includes saving what is now a popular gathering spot, the glassed study courts on the second floor.
“There was a point in the project where we thought we might lose those just because it looked like we might go over budget,” Unsworth said. “Providentially, an unanticipated bequest came in right at that point. We didn’t know it was coming. It just dropped out of the sky and allowed us to keep that feature in the project.”
