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Thomas J. Galvin

American librarian and academic

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Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionMar 11, 2026
Entity authorityQ23035657 ↗
Source-derived summary

Thomas J. Galvin (December 30, 1932 – February 18, 2004) was an American librarian and academic. Galvin held a bachelor's degree in English from Columbia University and a master's in library science from Simmons College as well as a doctorate from Case Western Reserve University. From 1962 to 1972, he held a series of combined faculty and leadership positions at the graduate school of library and information science at Simmons College, ultimately being named associate dean and professor. He was then made dean of the school of library and information science at the University of Pittsburgh from 1974 to 1985.

Galvin served as president of the American Library Association from 1979 to 1980 and as its executive director from 1985 to 1989.

Galvin returned to academia as a professor in the School of Information Science and Policy at the University at Albany in 1989, where he implemented an interdisciplincary doctoral program in information science. He retired in 1999 and was made professor emeritus by the faculty.

Awards and honors

ALISE Award for Professional Contributions to Library and Information Sciences Education (1993)

Medical Library Association’s Eliot Prize for the most significant contribution to the literature of medical librarianship (1988)

Best information science book of the year by the American Society for Information Science (1979) for The Structure and Governance of Library Networks with Allen Kent.

Editorial summary

This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Thomas J. Galvin” as american librarian and academic. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.

Editorial reviewA concise reference frame for defining the subject, testing terminology and identifying the institution closest to the evidence. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1932, 2004, 1962, 1972—that can be checked directly. The authority record carries competing date values—1933, 1932-12-30—which should remain separate until their references and qualifiers are resolved. The account is most persuasive where Thomas, Galvin and American can be independently traced.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The subject matters to the general reference register because the source frames it as american librarian and academic. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.

Evidence profile

The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Mar 11, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q23035657. VIAF identifies the subject as 28058238. The Library of Congress control number is n79062870. 2 of 4 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1932, 2004, 1962 and 1972.

Critical limits

A concise general-reference account can conceal disagreements about scope, terminology or the weight assigned to individual sources. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

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Questions for further research

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Thomas J. Galvin” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.