Profile: Dan Crocker

Dan Crocker

Dan Crocker is the coordinator of electronic resources and a reference librarian at the Iwasaki Library. His main responsibilities are to provide students and faculty with access to information and assist with their research. In addition to being available in person, by email, and by phone, Crocker connects with students through chat services and social media. He and his team of reference librarians answer approximately 160 questions per month. Most reference transactions are drop-in, but for more detailed assistance, students and faculty can schedule a 30- or 60-minute research consultation appointment, either in person or via Zoom.

Crocker manages the library’s e-database collection, which consists of 135 databases that contain information on everything from government statistics and business trends to television documentaries and 20th-century literary criticism. He works with vendors to maintain subscriptions and to add and delete new resources and update content. Through his management of the databases, Crocker seeks to support the College’s growth and students’ development in new fields of study. He also administers the MultiSearch research tool, which allows users to search the library’s collection by keywords, titles, and authors. In the last year, students and faculty used MultiSearch and database holdings to access 360,000 articles, books, and streaming media sources.

Emerson’s students are one reason that Crocker has enjoyed working at the College for almost 13 years. He said, “Our students are creative, passionate, and dedicated to following knowledge. Their thinking and approach to questions have inspired and improved my own.” He is also continuously inspired by the library’s collection of books and movies.

Higher education employment is a family affair for Crocker. His father worked at colleges when he was growing up, and both of his brothers currently work at colleges. Crocker started working in college libraries when he was in high school.

He graduated from Hampshire College with a degree in the political influence and significance of fiction by WWII veterans. He also has a master’s degree in library science from Simmons College. Prior to arriving at Emerson, he held a variety of library positions at New England College of Optometry, Bunker Hill Community College, and the University of Missouri–St. Louis, among others.

Crocker was born in Tennessee but moved around quite a bit when he was young. He has lived in Lewiston and Monmouth, Maine; Nashville, Tennessee; Lancaster County, Pennsylvania; Amherst and Woods Hole, Massachusetts; and St. Louis, Missouri. He currently lives in Jamaica Plain with his wife, daughter, and mother-in-law. He noted that his daughter attends Transportation Children’s Center and her voice sometimes penetrates the West Stacks of the library from her playground.

Not surprisingly, Crocker loves to read and watch movies outside of the office as well. His personal library is accessible at https://danslibrary.libib.com/. One of his favorite recent nonfiction reads is H Is for Hawk by Helen MacDonald. He is also a music fan and refers to American politics as his “sport of choice.” He is always open to a good conversation about great places to spend time near campus or online.

Nancy Howell (Communications and Marketing)