Heller-Ross Achieves SUNY’s Highest Rank of Distinguished Librarian
Feinberg librarian and SUNY Women in Technology program administrator, Holly Heller-Ross, has been promoted to the rank of distinguished librarian.
The distinguished ranking is the highest honor that the SUNY Board of Trustees can confer on faculty and staff. It’s awarded to librarians who, according to the Board of Trustees, have “achieved a distinguished reputation for significant achievement in the areas of scholarship/research, service/librarianship, and/or teaching.
“Contributions at the level of the University, the State of New York, or nation may include creating a new information environment by providing access to information, sharing or networking information resources, and fostering information literacy.”
Effective Models for Information Literacy
“Throughout her career, Holly has helped shape the ways our library and technology services support access, teaching, learning and student success,” University President Alexander Enyedi said when announcing Heller-Ross’ honor at his welcome breakfast Aug. 21. “Her scholarship has advanced effective models for information literacy, embedded librarianship and support for students learning in online and hybrid environments.”
Enyedi said that Heller-Ross’ influence “also extends across the SUNY system.”
“As founder and program administrator of SUNY Women in Technology, Holly has created opportunities for mentorship, professional development and greater mobility for people identifying as women in technology and their allies throughout SUNY.”
A self-described “proud alumna of SUNY Plattsburgh,” Heller-Ross earned her bachelor’s
degree in environmental science here in 1984, and 42 years later she remains committed
to the protection “of our environment and scientific inquiry.”
University’s Third Distinguished Librarian
But a scarcity in environmental science jobs in the Regan Era led Heller-Ross on a trajectory that brought her to a place in SUNY Plattsburgh’s history of being only its third distinguished librarian and 12th statewide since the rank was introduced 26 years ago.
A series of temp jobs in the Washington, D.C., area included hanging wallpaper for her cousin’s husband and working in the credit card department of a bank. It was during her lunch hours spent in the local library in Chevy Chase, Md., that she wondered about a career as a librarian.
No stranger to libraries, Heller-Ross had worked as a work-study student in the Daemon College library in Buffalo and then, after transferring to SUNY Plattsburgh for that environmental science degree, at the Miner Institute library in Chazy while attending the applied environmental science program.
‘Predisposed to Libraries’
“Those work-study jobs predisposed me to libraries,” she said. Not wanting to make banking a career, she took the GREs and was accepted into the master’s program in library science at the University of Albany.
“I loved library school — absolutely loved it.”
That passion has never left.
“It’s deep in me. I can’t turn it off,” she said. “I always want to share what I learn; I want to keep speaking of things, of writing things, taking on leadership roles, because I care about what we do (at Feinberg), and we have important services to offer.”
Heller-Ross joined the library staff as a senior assistant librarian in January 1994, was promoted to associate librarian in 2000, and in January 2008, she began serving as interim associate dean of Library and Information Technology Services. That job became hers in September 2009.
Three years later, she was again tapped for an interim role, this time as dean of LITS, a position she’d eventually get and hold for almost a decade. In December 2021, Heller-Ross stepped down as dean of LITS to take up the mantel of founder of the SUNY Women in Technology program.
LITS and the Pandemic
During the pandemic, under Heller-Ross’ leadership, LITS staff was able to integrate Zoom with the campus platform, Moodle, and remote access to desktops for employees working from home. To address students’ needs for computer access, Library and Information Technology Services staff created a 200-seat remote computer lab that will be available to students 24/7, among many other initiatives and innovations. As a result, they were cited at the state level for keeping the college community connected — to one another and to the rest of the world — when the campus was shuttered.
“I love being in a place where collaboration is encouraged,” Heller-Ross said. “During the pandemic, we were enablers — we enabled what everyone across campus was able to accomplish.”
Feinberg at 50
For her next collaborative initiation, Heller-Ross, along with Associate Librarian Debra Kimok and Special Collections Assistant Alexander Dickey, SUNY Buffalo library school graduate intern, are developing Feinberg at 50.
“This building was dedicated in spring 1977, so to recognize the 50th anniversary, we’re planning a year-long celebration starting in the fall of 2027,” she said. “Before the library was in Feinberg, it was in the Moore building; before that, it was in Hawkins Hall — before the fire (in 1929).”
Heller-Ross said the celebration will include exhibits, showcases, interviews, collections of memorabilia from alumni and more.
“Then, in spring 2028, we’ll envision the next 50 years of Feinberg. Ideally, Feinberg at 50 will culminate in a re-dedication ceremony where we bring back descendants of the Feinberg family.” A grant from the Regional Library Network is being used to pay Dickey to do special collections research. “There’s so much to do,” she said.
— By Associate Director of Communications Gerianne Downs
