H. Thomas Hickerson papers

Archivist and library administrator.

H. Thomas Hickerson was Associate University Librarian for Information Technologies and Special Collections in the Cornell University Library. His special collections responsibilities included oversight for the Library's principal rare book and manuscript programs. He served in the Department of Manuscript and University Archives as Supervisor of Technical Operations from 1974 to 1979, and as Department Chair from 1979 to 1991. He directed the Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections from 1992 through 1998. Tom was the founding director of the Cornell Institute for Digital Collections, established in 1997 and succeeding the Digital Access Coalition, which he organized in 1992. He is a former president of the Society of American Archivists and has served on SAA Council, on the National Information Systems Task Force, and was the first chair of the Society's Standards Board, among other SAA groups. He was named a Fellow of the Society in 1987. Additionally, he was the first chair of the Research Libraries Group's Task Force on Archives, Manuscripts, and Special Collections, served on the Executive Committee of the ALA Rare Books and Manuscripts Section, and co-chaired the ALA/SAA Joint Committee on Library-Archives Relations. He holds B.A. and M.A. degrees from the University of Oklahoma and previously directed the Oklahoma State Archives and Records Division of the State Library.