E-mail: dsmallen@hamilton.edu
Phone: (315) 859-4169
Fax: (315) 859-4185

David L. Smallen

As Vice President for Libraries and Information Technology I lead an organization that creates and supports information and technology environments that ensure the success of our students and the faculty and staff that support Hamilton's mission.

Library and Information Technology Services (LITS) is responsible for the support of access to information/ knowledge,  computing, networking and telephone services at Hamilton College. As the leader of a team of dedicated professionals, I am responsible for planning, budgeting, recruiting and hiring staff, and representing the College in local, national, and international organizations. Providing these services is an incredibly challenging responsibility. Expectations are very high, resources are limited, and information formats and technologies are rapidly changing. All of this makes excellence hard to achieve, but we keep at it.

I came to Hamilton in 1972, as a member of the mathematics department, expecting to follow the traditional career of a faculty member. Instead, in 1974 I was asked to lead a computer services organization of 4 people. I didn't know much about computing then, and given the rapid pace of technological change I probably know proportionately less now. Of course, in the 1970s personal computers and the Internet were only a dream. . Along the way we started an office of institutional research, which I led for ten years until it became a substantial entity unto itself.  Information Technology Services (ITS) grew to 33 individuals by 2010. In 2011, I was asked to lead the Library in addition to ITS. Over the following two years Hamilton studied the requirements for the Library of the Future and the value of creating one organization to oversee both the Library and information technology. In June 2013, Hamilton decided to merge the two organizations under one leader and in September I was appointed to be that leader. The challenge for LITS is to anticipate needs and deliver services of exceptional quality to the Hamilton College community.

More generally, I am interested in creating high-performing organizations, effective teamwork and leadership issues in higher education. I've served on the Boards of CAUSE, EDUCOM, Educause and numerous committees for these organizations. I have also been the director of the Educause Leadership Institute, a program to help prepare the IT leaders of tomorrow and created and co-led the Hawkins Leadership Roundtable, a professional development activity for new CIOs and  those aspiring to IT leadership roles. At Hamilton, I helped to create the Hamilton Management Roundtable, which provides leadership and management development for supervisors at Hamilton.