Mark Watson, associate dean for research services, will become interim dean of UO Libraries.

Provost and Senior Vice President Jayanth Banavar announced that Watson will take over July 9. He will fill the position held by outgoing UO Libraries Dean Adriene Lim, who has been named the next dean of libraries at the University of Maryland.

Watson has served stints as interim head of UO science libraries, overseeing the operations of the Allan Price Science Commons and Research Library, and as co-interim dean of libraries before Lim’s arrival in 2015.

He was an associate university librarian for collections and access from 2002 to 2013, coordinating activities across six areas and supervising 80 staff members, and assumed the title of associate dean of libraries for research services in 2014. Watson started at the UO in 1986 as a catalog librarian and became associate university librarian for technical services in 1988, providing leadership for acquisitions, cataloging, interlibrary loans and library systems.

“I am confident that Mark will be a terrific interim dean,” Banavar said Monday in a message to UO Libraries faculty and staff members. “He brings a level of experience and understanding to the position that will help us continue moving our libraries forward.”

Banavar said a search to fill the permanent position will begin this fall.