People of Long Now

Michael A. Keller is the Stanford University Librarian, Director of Academic Information Resources, and Publisher of HighWire Press for Stanford's Green Library. Keller was educated at Hamilton College (B.A., Biology, Music, 01967), SUNY Buffalo (M.A., Musicology, 01970), SUNY/Geneseo (M.L.S., 01971), and SUNY Buffalo (a.b.d. Ph.D., Musicology). From 01973 to 01981, he served as Music Librarian and Sr. Lecturer in Musicology at Cornell University and then in a similar capacity at UC/Berkeley. While at Berkeley, he also taught musicology at Stanford University. Yale called him to the post of Associate University Librarian and Director of Collection Development in 01986, a post which required him to travel the globe, physically and virtually, in search of books, journals, manuscripts and archives from a wide range of publishers and booksellers. In 01993, he joined the Stanford staff as the Ida M. Green Director of Libraries. In September 01994, he was promoted to University Librarian and Director of Academic Information Resources.

For many years, Keller has been involved in the great debate on serials pricing, especially in the arenas of science, technology, and medicine. During this time, he has been an advisor, consultant, and committee member with the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and the American Physical Society. As part of the effort to induce a marketplace correction in stm journal publishing, in response to requests for assistance from scholars and scholarly societies, and as a way of improving scholarly communication, he established a new enterprise in the Stanford University Libraries, the HighWire Press. Since early 01995, the HighWire Press has engaged in co-publishing high impact stm journals with major scholarly societies, among them The Journal of Biological Chemistry, Science Magazine, The Journal of Clinical Investigation, The Journal of Neuroscience, Journal Watch, and The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, among others.

Keller is a member of the National Digital Library Federation and has been involved in policy and strategic roles with the Research Libraries Group and the Center for Research Libraries as well as a variety of professional library associations. In addition, he has consulted for a variety of institutions on a variety of programs, including a long, wonderful stint for the City of Ferrara in Italy on their libraries and more recently with Newsweek, Princeton, and Indiana University. Keller is the compiler of a widely used text on music entitled: Music Research and Reference Materials, an annotated bibliography (N.Y.: Schirmer, 01994. 4th ed, rev.) and has written and spoken on a wide range of topics in librarianship, musicology, information topography, and aspects of national and global information policy. In June 01994 he presented an "Introduction to the Internet" to Stanford alumni around the U.S. He is an avid reader of historical biography and mysteries, but has yet to discover a good interactive novel to read in bed.