Overseeing the remodeling and expansion of the Peter J. Shields Library is one of the reasons Marilyn Sharrow came to work as the university librarian in 1985.

She completed that project and many more in the ensuing 24 years, and now she is announcing her retirement effective March 1. She will be university librarian emerita, a title approved by Chancellor Linda Katehi in recognition of Sharrow’s “more than two decades of dedicated and meritorious service to UC Davis” and her “high-profile advocacy of libraries everywhere in the United States and Canada.”

Chancellor Emeritus Larry Vanderhoef, to whom Sharrow reported for most of her career here, added: “Marilyn has been a leader among UC librarians, highly regarded by them all. She brought many things first to UC Davis, as in her program to assist people with disabilities as the campus moved into the digital age.”

With Sharrow’s retirement, the campus is asking the UC Board of Regents to extend the appointment of Helen Henry and Gail Yokote as acting co-university librarians; they have been serving in an acting capacity since January, when Sharrow went on leave.

Henry’s and Yokote’s appointments are expected to run until a new university librarian is hired. A national search is expected to get under way soon.

At the time of Sharrow’s hiring, she recalled. “The university had just hired the architect for the Shields project, and I was very excited about seeing it through.”

She had already been the librarian in charge of three other big projects: a new public library (15,000 square feet) in Roseville, Mich.; a 100,000-square-foot addition to the main library at the University of Manitoba; and the 20,000-square-foot Engineering Library at the University of Toronto.

Then came her biggest job ever: the remodeling of 180,000 square feet and the addition of 150,000 square feet at Shields, in a $43 million project that brought together old and new (and created seating space for 3,391 people), and moved the library’s main entry to the west side. There, the automatic front doors open to the new west wing, featuring a lobby with a grand staircase and a wall of windows overlooking an enclosed courtyard.

“It’s an enormous task for all the people involved, but a lot of fun to see your vision come to be,” she said. The project won eight national and state awards for architecture, design and construction.

The Shields project took eight years, after which Sharrow took on more construction projects: renovating the Physical Sciences and Engineering Library on the Davis campus and the old medical library in Sacramento, and assisting in the planning for the new Blaisdell Medical Library on the Sacramento campus.

All the while, Sharrow ran the University Library, building the collections, updating the technology, raising money and putting on public events — all with the help of “dedicated, excellent colleagues,” in her words.

“It has been very rewarding to work with them and with UC Davis’ senior administration, who have all been supportive of the library,” she said.

Sharrow added: “I’m pleased the library has been able to provide the university community with such a wonderful collection, fine services, cutting-edge technology and superior physical spaces.”

Today, the University Library boasts a total collection of more than 3.6 million volumes and about 32,000 active current serials, and a number of important special collections.

The library acquired several of its special collections during Sharrow’s time as librarian. They include the Michael and Margaret B. Harrison Western Research Center Collection; the Gary Snyder Collection, from the Pulitzer Prize-winning poet who is a UC Davis professor emeritus; and the A.W. Noling Hurty-Peck Collection of more than 6,000 items, including books, pamphlets and ephemera, related to bottling and beverage making.

Library experience includes art

For any rare collection, Sharrow said, “enabling people to come in and find everything they need in one place — that is a wonderful research experience.”

For Sharrow, the library experience extends beyond books and serials and rare collections. It also extends to art — like the paintings and sculptures in Shields Library, more than 90 works altogether by UC Davis artists. They include Wayne Thiebaud and David Hollowell, not to mention Robert Arneson — whose Bookhead Egghead sculpture sits in front of the library.

“Adding such art to the library is a reminder to students of their campus’s heritage, of the people who helped make UC Davis what it is today,” Sharrow said. “It’s important for students to see these works and connect with them.”

Art is a major element of Sharrow’s life. She did her undergraduate work at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, receiving a Bachelor of Science degree in design (with emphases in painting and ceramics) and a minor in art history.

After her graduation in 1967, she designed window and store displays at Crowley’s department store in Detroit.

But becoming a librarian was her ultimate goal, and soon she joined a preprofessional program at the Detroit Public Library, working days and going to school at night at a University of Michigan center across the street.

“I love getting people the information they are looking for,” she said. A love of reading does not hurt, either. In Sharrow’s case, the mystery genre is her favorite.

And, above all else, she said, she began each workday knowing that “libraries change people’s lives.”

She received her Master of Arts degree in library science in 1969, continued working at the Detroit Public Library until 1970, and then joined the Syracuse University Libraries, where she headed the Fine Arts Department until 1973.

She was director of the Roseville Public Library in Michigan from 1973 to 1975, then returned to higher education, working at the University of Washington, the University of Manitoba and the University of Toronto before joining UC Davis.

Altogether, she worked as a librarian for 41 years, compiling a long resume of service on committees and boards around the United States and Canada, publishing articles and giving presentations and speeches — even testifying once on Capitol Hill on behalf of the Library of Congress.

She served a one-year term as president of the Association of Research Libraries and a one-year term as president of the Canadian Association of Research Libraries — elected both times by her colleagues.

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