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Tzoc and Johnson promoted to principal librarian

Trustees approve promotion of two principal librarians (photo of Elias Tzoc and Jacqueline Johnson)

The Miami University Libraries are pleased to recognize Jacqueline Johnson, university archivist, and Elias Tzoc, head of the Create + Innovate Department, who received promotion to principal librarian during the Feb. 16 meeting of the Board of Trustees.

“Our dedicated librarians and staff are at the heart of what we do as a University Libraries system, and Jacqueline Johnson and Elias Tzoc exemplify that commitment to service and dedication to advancing their professions,” Jerome Conley, dean and university librarian, said. “We are grateful to the Board of Trustees for recognizing their extensive contributions and their value to Miami’s academic community and the field of librarianship.”

Johnson arrived at Miami in 1991 as a minority resident librarian. She has dedicated most of her career to the university’s archival collections. From 2005-2015, she was archivist for the Western College Memorial Archives. In 2016, she became university archivist. Her responsibilities, which she describes as “an honor,” focus on developing, maintaining, supporting and promoting the use of the University Libraries’ archival collections, which includes collections from Miami University, Western College and Oxford College.

She has been invaluable in promoting the role of Western College for Women during Freedom Summer (1964). In addition to supporting faculty and student projects on the subject, she was integral in the development of the Mississippi Freedom Summer Digital Collection Metadata Project and website as well as in organizing a Freedom Summer oral history program. More recently, she helped secure a collection of items related to the late Jerry Williams ’39, one of Miami’s first African-American student-athletes.

Johnson is a member of the National Civil Rights Conference Planning Committee and the Afro-American Historical and Genealogical Society’s Commission on the 400th Commemoration of the First Documented Africans in British North America. She has served on committees for the Society of Ohio Archivists and is a member of Miami’s Celebrating Global Sisterhood Committees.

Her scholarly contributions include 19 successful grant applications and more than 40 presentations. Most recently, she presented with Miami colleagues on “Lessons from 1964” at the National Diversity Symposium in Muncie, Indiana, and published in published in the Society of American Archivists’ Archival Outlook.

She holds a bachelor’s degree from Limestone College and her master’s in library and information science from the University of South Carolina.

Tzoc arrived at Miami in 2007 as a digital initiatives librarian before, in 2015, being named digital scholarship librarian for the Center for Digital Scholarship.  In 10 years, he has worked and collaborated with a diverse group of colleagues, including faculty members, graduate and undergraduate students, officers from funding agencies, university administrators, and librarians from Ohio, the U.S., and several nations.

Earlier this year, he was named head of the newly formed Create + Innovate Department, which is charged with the mission of enhancing scholarly work at Miami University by anticipating the resources, technologies, spaces and expertise that drive groundbreaking research, creative forms of expression, innovative tools for teaching, and new mediums for sharing the Miami community’s scholarly achievements.

A partner with Miami faculty and students on a variety of digital projects, Tzoc played an integral role collaborating with Ann Elizabeth Armstrong, associate professor of theatre, in creating the Freedom Summer App, funded by a National Endowment for the Humanities grant and the winner of a national ALL-IN Challenge Award. In all, he has contributed to 11 significant digital projects in collaboration with Miami faculty and students, ranging from websites and apps to ebooks and digital collections.

Active in the profession, Tzoc has contributed to nine successful grant applications totaling more than $130,000.  He also has contributed to 17 publications; developed a host of digital library tools since made available to the public; and given nearly 40 professional presentations, most focused on the field of digital scholarship.  He is currently a reviewer for two Latin American journals.  He is also an adjunct instructor for the AIMS program.

Principal librarians are promoted based on a record of continued excellence in job performance and leadership, demonstrated excellence in service to the profession and/or community, and a strong record of scholarship and creative activity.