In November, David S. Ferriero was sworn in as the tenth Archivist of the United States, the first librarian to hold the position. The librarian and library administrator was previously the director of the New York Public Library where he worked after serving as University Librarian and vice provost for library affairs at Duke University. Earlier in his career, he spent 31 years as a librarian at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

The US Archivist is charged with managing the National Archives and Records Administration, which holds some 10 billion items. Ferriero was appointed as a successor to Allen Weinstein, who resigned in December on health grounds. At the New York library, he helped integrate the four research libraries and 87 branch libraries into one huge organization. Among his roles was to develop the library’s strategy for storing digital documents and images.