Baker Library Gets New Executive Director
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| Kennedy: preparing for Baker Library’s reopening next summer. Photo by Stuart Cahill |
Mary Lee Kennedy, the new executive director of Baker Library, can hardly wait for the renovated and expanded facility to reopen next summer. “It is going to be a hub of campus intellectual activity,” says Kennedy, whose appointment was announced in September by Dean Kim B. Clark.
Kennedy arrived at HBS after serving as director of Microsoft’s Knowledge Network Group, where she led a global organization of 100 people delivering information and knowledge-based products and services. She has previously headed information services in several other global corporate settings.
The updated facility will be expanded from 130,000 to 160,000 square feet. It not only will house one of the world’s largest collections of business books, periodicals, and materials, it will include an academic center featuring new seminar and conference rooms, areas for student meetings and discussions, and 67 faculty offices. “It will be a natural environment for intellectual exchanges,” says Kennedy.
Other new features include a conservation laboratory to preserve the School’s unique collections of business manuscripts and other archival materials, and a historical collections reading room.
In addition to preparing for the reopening next summer, Kennedy has started work on a three-year strategic plan. “Baker serves a variety of customers, and they all use information differently and connect with people differently,” Kennedy explains. “Meeting their needs in the context of the HBS mission is what my job is all about.”
