Nate Hill

Work Experience

• Executive Director
• Metropolitan New York Library Council
• New York, New York
• 2015 - Present

The Metropolitan New York Library Council (METRO) is the largest of nine regional library councils in New York State, serving all the boroughs of New York City as well as Westchester County. METRO’s membership spans +/-250 libraries, archives, museums, non-profits, and others as organizational members, and also includes students, consultants, and others as individual members. The organization’s mission is to facilitate collaboration, build capacity, support innovation, and enhance resource sharing by connecting the efforts of the diverse membership.

As the Executive Director, I relocated and relaunched the organization in April of 2017. METRO now operates out of ‘599’, a new 8000 square foot studio in Midtown Manhattan. 599 is an architectural and programmatic instantiation of a digital library in physical space: we offer tools and resources that empower our members to read, write, and participate on the web. Our activities are focused on the digitization, description, and presentation of cultural heritage materials. 599 makes the labor and the communities associated with archiving and preservation visible, legible, and accessible; the space itself is a platform for action so that participants can organize to create their own community narratives.

• Assistant Director
• Chattanooga Public Library
• Chattanooga, Tennessee
• 2012 - 2015

The Chattanooga Public Library serves a population of 170,000 residents with one central library and three branch facilities. As a leader in Chattanooga, I helped this library transition out of obsolescence and obscurity to become a global source of inspiration and innovation for librarians and other knowledge workers. At the Chattanooga Public Library I designed, developed, and led a project called The 4th Floor. The 4th Floor, formerly an unused attic, became a heavily trafficked public laboratory and educational facility with a focus on information, design, technology, and the applied arts. This project gained international attention, and was included in the Cooper Hewitt National Design Museum’s critically acclaimed exhibit “By The People: Designing a Better America.”

• Web Librarian
• San Jose Public Library
• San Jose, California
• 2009 - 2012

The San Jose Public Library is a busy urban public library system in the heart of Silicon Valley with 24 branches serving a population of more than 1 million people. I was recruited to the library’s ‘Digital Futures’ team in 2009 to help them design and launch a new web presence after the library had separated itself from a citywide content management system. In San Jose, I managed social media participation and blog content creation for the entire library system, I designed and implemented a website using an open source content management system, and I built and launched a web-based mobile local history experience featuring historic photographs from the library’s California Collection.

• Branch Library Manager, other roles
• Brooklyn Public Library
• Brooklyn, New York
• 1999 - 2009

The Brooklyn Public Library is the sixth largest public library system in the United States, serving more than 3 million people from 60 locations. I began my career in libraries as a Library Assistant at the Stone Avenue Branch, and over nearly a decade gained more responsibility and experience. In nearly a decade at the Brooklyn Public Library I worked in more than 30 diverse communities across Brooklyn, I participated in an IMLS/Pratt Institute/Brooklyn Public Library “Public Urban Library Service Education” degree program, and I designed and developed the innovative “Library Outpost” service model.

Advisory Roles

Current

• Member, New York State Board of Regents Advisory Council on Libraries
• Vice Chair, Empire State Library Network
• Advisory Board, OFBYFORALL
• Advisor / Facilitator Reading List for Life/Open Syallabus Project
• Advisory Board, Memory Lab Network
• Advisory Board, Data Reuse Project

Past

• Advisory Board, Pratt School of Information
• Advisor, New York Architectural League / Center for an Urban Future, Re-envisioning Branch Libraries project
• Board Member, Chattanooga Enterprise Center
• Board Member, Causeway (Chattanooga, TN)