Paul LeClerc will be coming to speak in the Library Lecture Wednesday, February 3, 2010, on “Managing Transitions in One of the World’s Biggest Libraries.”

Dr. LeClerc is currently the President of The New York Public Library a position he has held since 1993. Dr. LeClerc was a member of the faculty of Union College from 1966 through 1979, where he chaired the Department of Modern Languages and the Division of Humanities. In 1979 he came to The City University of New York as University Dean for Academic Affairs, later becoming Acting Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs. In 1984 he was appointed Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs of Baruch College, and in 1988, was appointed President of Hunter College.

At the New York Public Library he has spearheaded the creation of a digital library, launching the first NYPL.org website—and continues to oversee the digitization of the Library’s catalog. Additionally, he oversaw the creation of six new libraries and many other large-scale renovations including the current restoration of the monumental façade of the Stephen A. Schwarzman building.

LeClerc is the author or co-editor of five scholarly volumes on writers of the French Enlightenment and his contributions to French culture earned him the Order of the Academic Palms (Officier) in 1989 and the French Legion of Honor (Chevalier) in 1996.

Dr. LeClerc has received honorary doctorates from Oxford University, the University of Paris III-La Nouvelle Sorbonne, and Brown University, among others, and he is currently a Trustee of The New York Public Library, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, Union College, the J. Paul Getty Trust, the American Academy in Rome, the National Book Foundation, and the Carroll and Milton Petrie Foundation. President Clinton appointed him to the President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities and he is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and a member of the American Philosophical Society.

Please join us in the Lecture Hall at 38 West 86th Street, between Columbus Ave and Central Park West, at 545pm for a light reception before the talk.