Jon Stroop appointed as Princeton University Librarian

Deputy Dean of Libraries Jon Stroop, who has served in leadership roles at Princeton University Library for 20 years, will become the next dean of libraries and Robert H. Taylor 1930 University Librarian. His appointment is effective Aug. 1. 

Stroop will lead Princeton University Library, one of the world’s foremost research libraries, consisting of the Harvey S. Firestone Library and nine branch libraries. He will succeed Anne Jarvis, who previously announced plans to step down after a decade as University Librarian. 

“Over more than two decades in Princeton’s libraries, Jon Stroop has established himself as an effective leader and valued partner to faculty and staff throughout the University,” President Christopher L. Eisgruber said. “He is the right person to guide our libraries through their next chapter, and I look forward to working with him as he joins my cabinet.”

Provost Jennifer Rexford, to whom Stroop will report, said, “Jon combines a deep appreciation for scholarship with a clear vision for how technology is shaping research and teaching. I look forward to working with such a thoughtful, trusted leader who understands both where libraries come from and where they need to go.”

Stroop said he is honored to serve as the next University Librarian, adding that he is “grateful to the colleagues past and present who have built the Library I’ve now been entrusted to lead.”

“Great research libraries are measured not just by the collections they hold, but by what they help create,” he said. “At Princeton, that work is done by an exceptional staff who provide services that are among the most powerful tools Princeton has for creating new knowledge.”

“To me, an agile library keeps adding value as the academic landscape shifts and anticipates where scholarship is heading,” Stroop said. “My focus as dean will be on setting that direction and building the capacity to sustain it.”

Stroop joined Princeton University Library in 2005 and has served in his current role since 2021. In positions of increasing responsibility, he has been integral to the Library’s strategic planning, operations, services and leadership. He helped transform its information technology services, expanding digital access to the Library’s robust collections and establishing Princeton as a leader in that area. 

As deputy dean of libraries, Stroop has worked with Jarvis, Library staff, faculty and senior administrators to advance the Library’s teaching and research partnership with Princeton’s student and scholarly community and with scholars from across the world. He currently oversees eight of the Library’s 17 departments, including the Marquand Library of Art and Archaeology and the East Asian Library. 

Stroop created the Library’s assessment and user experience department, which develops data-driven insights to help evaluate and prioritize services for students, faculty and researchers. He is chair of the Library Administration Team and serves on University-wide committees related to artificial intelligence, teaching and learning technologies, and IT systems and security. 

Stroop said he is “deeply committed” to Princeton’s teaching, research and service missions, and is excited by the University’s “recent investments in engineering and AI, continued commitment to the humanities and social sciences, and vision for integrating technology with humanistic understanding.” 

While at Princeton, Stroop also helped develop the International Image Interoperability Framework, which fundamentally changed how libraries across the world present digitized resources and how students, scholars and the public access and use the resources. 

Prior to his appointment as deputy dean, Stroop served as director of Library IT, Imaging and Metadata Services from 2017 to 2021. Before that, he was an application development manager, a digital initiatives developer, and — in his first job at Princeton — an assistant music librarian. 

Before coming to Princeton, he worked as a cataloger at the Juilliard School and as an associate editor at Répertoire International de Littérature Musicale and he currently chairs that organization’s board of directors.

He earned a master’s of science in library and information science from the Pratt Institute and a master’s in music from the University of Cincinnati. Stroop has a bachelor’s degree in music from the Hartt School at the University of Hartford.