A history of 20th Century library technological change up to Shirley’s retirement from WashU Libraries in 2012.
Shirley K. Baker worked in computing in industry and served as a Peace Corps volunteer in India before becoming a librarian. Before coming to WashU in 1989 as dean of libraries, she worked at Northwestern and Johns Hopkins Universities and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In 1995, then WashU chancellor Mark Wrighton added vice-chancellor for scholarly resources to her responsibilities.
Dean Baker led the WashU Libraries from the turmoil of the 1980s into the information age. She facilitated networking of all the libraries and provided staff with desktop computing, email, and word processing. She led the transition from card catalog to online. Dean Baker oversaw the creation and maintenance of the University’s website and computer use policies.
She created the West Campus Library and built new libraries for Art & Architecture and Earth & Planetary Sciences. She planned and guided the gut rehab of Olin Library, completed in 2004. Special collections grew dramatically through the acquisition of film archives and the illustration research archive.
Dean Baker was also active regionally and nationally. She led a North American effort to strengthen interlibrary loan and the formation of the MOBIUS consortium. She retired from Washington University as dean of libraries in 2012. On her retirement, the University created a significant library endowment in her name. The Board of Trustees resolution at her retirement describes her as a visionary and legendary leader.
After retiring, Dean Baker wrote an autobiography entitled I Always Knew What I Didn’t Want, Adventures of an Unlikely Librarian. She is currently involved in book and movie groups and facilitates a memoir writing group for WashU’s Osher Lifelong Learning program. She and her husband Richard have two children and three grandchildren.
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