Heidi Fraser-Krauss - our new Director

Posted on 1 October 2015

We're pleased to announce that Heidi Fraser-Krauss has now begun work in her new role as Director of Information Services and University Librarian. Heidi has been Deputy Director of Information and Head of IT Services for three years, having joined us from St Andrews in 2012.

Photo of Heidi Fraser-Krauss, Director of Information Services and University Librarian

Heidi has already been spending time learning about the new role, meeting colleagues at all levels both within and without the Directorate, including Heads of Departments, Deans and other senior staff. She says:

"I’m really excited about taking on this leadership role, and would like to thank Stephen Town for ensuring that we have had such a smooth transition. I’m proud to be part of a Directorate which is already highly successful, and I’m enthusiastic about working with you to identify ways that we can improve it still further. As part of my induction I have already met many of my colleagues and been blown away by the breadth, depth and quality of the work that goes on in the Directorate, as well as their commitment and professionalism - I intend to meet all of our staff and I’m looking forward to hearing more about what they do."

"Outside the Directorate, I’ve been busy meeting with Heads of Departments, Deans and other senior staff, to ensure that I understand what is expected from us and to communicate with them about the services that we provide to the University."

"In the coming weeks and months I’ll be working with you on a vision for our services; I want us to be fully engaged with the academic community in putting the Library and the Archives at the centre of scholarly endeavour. On the IT side, I’ll be working with departments to ensure that they continue to have the IT facilities and support they need; there’ll be a focus on upgrading our infrastructure to support teaching, learning, and research. To ensure that we’re supporting the new University strategy, via efficient and effective administration I’ll be initiating a series of process reviews across the Directorate. These reviews will help us to understand what we need to change to make our internal and external services even better."

Heidi has implemented two changes with immediate effect:

It’s been agreed that there’ll be no direct replacement for her previous post (Deputy Director of Information and Head of IT Services). Instead, two new grade 9 posts, to lead two divisions within IT Services (Enterprise and Infrastructure) will be advertised across the University in early October.
Secondly, it’s been decided that the name of the Directorate will change, becoming Information Services Directorate, which Heidi feels is a clearer expression of what we offer.

As a Directorate, we thrive on your feedback - engaging with both staff and students is vital to developing and improving the services we offer. If you have any suggestions for Heidi, please email her (heidi.fraser-krauss@york.ac.uk).