UCLA appoints Athena Jackson as Norman and Armena Powell University Librarian
Powell Library is pictured. Athena Jackson, the former director of library special collections at UCLA, will serve as the next Norman and Armena Powell University Librarian, effective March 1. (Joseph Jimenez/Photo editor)
By Catherine Hamilton
Jan. 25, 2024 11:42 a.m.
This post was updated Jan. 25 at 10:03 p.m.
Former UCLA director of library special collections Athena Jackson will be the next Norman and Armena Powell University Librarian, UCLA announced Thursday.
Jackson will start in the role March 1, succeeding Virginia Steel – who had occupied the position since 2013, according to an announcement from Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost Darnell Hunt. Jackson previously served as director of library special collections at UCLA beginning in 2019 before becoming the dean of libraries and Elizabeth D. Rockwell Chair at the University of Houston in 2021.
[Related: The university librarian since 2013, Virginia Steel, will retire at the end of 2023]
Jackson was also previously the Dorothy Foehr Huck Chair and head of the Eberly Family Special Collections Library at Penn State University, a special collections librarian at the University of Miami, the coordinator of the North Carolina Newspaper Digitization Project and an archivist at the North Carolina State Archives.
She earned a Bachelor of Arts in English from the University of Houston and received a Master of Science in library and information science from the University of North Texas.
Jackson is also involved in scholarship dialogues through member organizations of the University of Houston such as the Association of Research Libraries, the Council on Library and Information Resources and the Texas Digital Library.
“Our libraries play a critical role in the academic enterprise at UCLA, and Chancellor Block and I are confident that Athena will provide outstanding leadership as university librarian,” Hunt said in the announcement.
