Announcing Mar González Palacios, Associate Dean, Collections and Content Strategy

Simon Fraser University Library is pleased to announce the appointment of Mar González Palacios as Associate Dean, Collections and Content Strategy, effective November 1, 2022

Headshot of Mar González Palacios

Joining SFU Library from Yale University, Mar has been the Associate Director, Special Collections of the Robert B. Haas Family Arts Library at Yale since 2018. Previous positions include the Head of Collection Access at the Canadian Centre for Architecture in Montreal, the Art & Architecture Librarian at the University of Oregon, and the Architecture and Planning Librarian at the University of Texas at Austin. Mar holds an MLIS from UBC, a BFA from Emily Carr, and a Bachelor of Architecture from Universidad Iberoamericana.

A former liaison librarian at SFU Library, Mar resonates with SFU’s commitments to open access and open scholarship, knowledge mobilization, and community engagement. “Leadership in these areas reflects institutional commitment to lower barriers to access to knowledge not only within SFU but also for the community at large,” Mar shared. “I am excited to return to SFU because I see the library’s efforts to continuously evolve into a better steward, facilitator, and collaborator.”

Among other areas of expertise, Mar brings experience in critical cataloguing practices and building collections that expand representation of historically marginalized voices: “These are two areas that I have been working on for several years and I look forward to collaborating with colleagues across SFU to advance these and other reconciliation and decolonization efforts.”

 

The search committee was impressed by Mar’s passion for collections, sustained focus on equity, and human-centered approach to management.

“I want to cultivate a culture of EDI through intentional decision-making,” explained Mar. “That is to keep equity, diversity, and inclusion in mind at all times … I see intentional decision-making as often involving collaboration and consultation that allow us to incorporate the diversity of expertise and ideas of all involved.”

Mar has been an active member of several professional organizations, including the BC Library Association, and has served on the Boards of the Art Libraries Society of North America and the Association of Architecture School Librarians. Research interests include using intersectionality as a framework to identify and address bias in collection development and assessment.

Welcome, Mar!

Date(s)
Starting Nov 1