WM Philip Croom

Short biography / Brève biographie

Philip Croom is the associate dean for the Rare Books and Special Collections Library at The American University in Cairo. Croom received his master’s degree in Library and Information Science from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with a specialization in rare books, conservation and international, multilingual library activities. His thesis, +The New French Library”; was on innovations in services and buildings and based on a research grant to study libraries in Paris, Lille, Chartres, Nice, Arles and Cannes. Mr. Croom also completed a master's in business administration at the Thunderbird School of Global Management that included study at Templeton College, Oxford University and License in History from the Universite de Nice, France. As associate dean for the Rare Books and Special Collections Library and Archives at AUC, Croom directs all activities of AUC research collections including acquisition,conservation, and reformatting of all library materials - including extensive rare book and archival collections and major digital initiatives. He is also responsible for the Center of Excellence for the Middle East and Arab Cultures. Previously, Croom served as assistant professor for Collection Management at Virginia Commonwealth University (1989-1993, 1994-1998). He has also served as head of the collections management at Eskind Biomedical Library, Vanderbilt University, where he oversaw collection development, acquisitions,