About Paul Courant
Paul N. Courant is the University Librarian and Dean of Libraries at the University of Michigan. He is also Harold T. Shapiro Collegiate Professor of Public Policy, Arthur F. Thurnau Professor of Economics, Professor of Information, and Faculty Associate in the Institute for Social Research at the University of Michigan. From 2002-2005 he served as Provost and Executive Vice-President for Academic Affairs, the chief academic officer and the chief budget officer of the University. He has also served as the Associate Provost for Academic and Budgetary Affairs, Chair of the Department of Economics and Director of the Institute of Public Policy Studies (which is now the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy).
Courant has authored half a dozen books, and over seventy papers covering a broad range of topics in economics and public policy, including tax policy, state and local economic development, gender differences in pay, housing, radon and public health, relationships between economic growth and environmental policy, and university budgeting systems. More recently, he is studying the economics of universities, the economics of libraries and archives, and the changes in the system of scholarly communication that derive from new information technologies.
Paul Courant holds a BA in History from Swarthmore College (1968); an MA in Economics from Princeton University (1973); and a PhD in Economics from Princeton University (1974). He rides a BMW R1150R motorcycle.
Hello Paul!
My name is Jacob Nielsen and I visited the University of Michigan Graduate Library today in search of information on the topic of library collection development and other issues that libraries face within the community. I found the librarians to be extremely helpful, much more helpful than those at Monroe County’s Ellis library where I started my research. But what I’m in need of now is an administrative opinion.
I’m wondering if maybe you would take the time to email me your views on some things, because an opinion from someone as highly regarded as you would only help make my paper stronger. Do you believe libraries should reflect the political and moral stance of a community or shoudl it follow other standards? What do you think the primary role of a library is in a community? How do libraries get thier funding? What factors affect a library’s collection development? It is questions like this that I need answers to.
Thank you very much, sir. I look forward to hearing from you very soon.
email: nielsen.jp@gmail.com
October 3, 2008 @ 11:30 pm
Good day,
I am working with a Tier 1 hosting center in Ann Arbor that also has another site on a different power grid in Flint. I was reading about your Hathi Trust project and was wondering if the efforts require an additional site for colocation or disaster recovery? Someone from U of M will be touring us in November, perhaps you could come along also.
Thank you for your consideration.
Chuck Stevens
616.240.1111
October 14, 2008 @ 10:23 am
[...] Paul Courant ?, university librarian, dean of the U-M Library, and professor of information, public policy, and economics, U-M [...]
October 16, 2008 @ 1:47 pm
Dear Dean Courant:
Michigan Alumnus magazine, late fall 2008 edition, discussed the Espresso Book Machine. What a great advance!
The Clements Library has a large collection of maps and I wonder if the machine could be adapted to reproduce those wonderful maps.
Yours truly,
Stephen Oldstrom, Ann Arbor
November 12, 2008 @ 7:53 am
[...] analysis of the Settlement. They also include varying opinions and commentary from librarians Paul Courant at the Univerisity of Michigan, who basically supports the Project and Prof. Siva Vaidhyanathan, [...]
November 16, 2009 @ 9:43 pm
http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/327/5964/393
I hope I’m right when I assume the irony will not be lost on most.
January 26, 2010 @ 12:55 pm