Gary Shaffer

Gary Shaffer, Ph.D. is the author of the forthcoming book Creating the Sustainable Public Library from Libraries Unlimited (March 2018). He serves as the head of the Library and Information Science program at the Marshall School of Business at the University of Southern California and Assistant Dean of USC Libraries and director of the Center for Library Leadership and Management. He is the former CEO of the Tulsa City-County Library, a 24 location public library system, with over 405 employees located in Northeastern Oklahoma. Gary started his library career as a trainee within the Brooklyn Public Library Public Urban Library Service Education (PULSE) program. He also worked for the Los Angeles County and Sacramento public libraries. In 2006 he was named a Library Journal Mover & Shaker.

Shaffer received his Ph.D. in Managerial Leadership in the Information Professions from Simmons College and holds an MLIS from the Pratt Institute, a Master's of Intellectual Property Law (LL.M.) from the University of Turin School of Law, and a Master’s of Professional Writing from the University of Southern California. He previously served for four years on the board of the Public Library Association, as well as a three year term on ALA Council. Prior to working in libraries, Gary supervised Fortune 500 accounts for various advertising agencies.

Shaffer is a member of the IFLA delegation to the World Intellectual Property Organization's Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights in Geneva and has spoken internationally on the modernization of libraries in Pretoria South Africa and Kaohsiung, Taiwan.