Margaret Otto

Librarian of the College

ASKMARGARET OTTO about her personal vision for Baker Library and her eyes fire up. "Stop right there. Baker is a treasure, a wonderful resource. But it is only one of ten library units that I'm looking out for. The Dartmouth College Library is rich and complex."

In her eighteenth year overseeing all our libraries, Margaret Otto still speaks about her work with infectious enthusiasm. "Technology has transformed the science since I arrived in Hanover. The card catalogue in Baker was closed in 1991. And of course as Dartmouth's curriculum has evolved, the libraries have had to keep up. Add an Arabic program, add women's studies, and the library grows. I know many people think we librarians are timid souls hunched over books with a rubber stamp all day, but that's far from the case. It's a thrilling time to be a librarian, and especially at Dartmouth.

"Imagine how nice it is to have my job when the president of the College is a genuine bookman. He sent over a note yesterday telling me he'd met the perfect speaker for a Friends of the Library gathering. Let me tell you," she laughs, "not many library directors get notes like that."

Ask her if she feels that the College library is at the top of its game and she pounces. "I'll tell you better than that! Among undergraduate institutions, Dartmouth—with over two million volumes—is the most exceptional in the country. I could probably say in the world. I'd go ahead and say the world, but I ought to check my resource library first."

Margaret Otto manages the ten jewels of the College's intellectual crown.