Heather Cole
Head of Collections, Teaching and Research
Biography
Heather Cole comes to Manchester from Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, where for the past eight years she has served as Head of Special Collections Instruction and Curator of Literary and Popular Culture Collections at the John Hay Library.
At Brown, Heather expanded the library's primary source instruction and outreach programs, and acquired the papers of former U.S. Poet Laureate Joy Harjo, playwright José Rivera, indigenous women's performance group Spiderwoman Theatre, writer and editor Michael Denneny, and much more. Prior to Brown, Heather was the Assistant Curator of Modern Books and Manuscripts and Curator of the Theodore Roosevelt Collection at the Houghton Library at Harvard University.
Heather holds an MA in English Literature and an MLS with a concentration in rare book librarianship from Indiana University, and a BA in English from Miami University. She is the author of Theodore Roosevelt: A Descriptive Bibliography (Oak Knoll, 2020) and Houghton Library at 75: A Celebration of its Collections (Harvard University Press, 2017).
Throughout her career, Heather has been committed to transforming special collections into inclusive spaces that reflect diverse voices, enhancing access to collections, and empowering users of all ages through innovative primary source literacy initiatives.
Heather is responsible for the strategic leadership, care, management and discovery of the Library’s outstanding Special Collections.
This includes rare books, maps, archives, manuscripts, visual collections, and digital materials. The role aims to position the collections at the forefront of curatorial practices to enhance research, teaching, learning, and public engagement.