Some librarians worry that an Internet-dominated society means the end of the book — and the end of their livelihoods, as they've been defined for centuries.

Not Rush Miller.

The 62-year-old director of the University of Pittsburgh library system has transformed not only his school's library but also the future of research libraries, said Duane Webster, executive director emeritus of the Association of Research Libraries in Washington.

"What Rush has done is very exciting — he's made Pitt's libraries digital, international and a global player," said Webster, 67. "He's built himself a reputation of being a trendsetter."

Under the Bethel Park resident's 15-year leadership, Pitt's libraries have increased their electronic collections and improved access to their online resources — for Pitt and people outside the Pitt community.

Miller and his colleagues have digitized tens of thousands of images from books, maps, art and photo archives and other materials. He's forged relationships with about 25 libraries in China, Korea and Africa that include document and staff exchanges. And Miller is working on developing similar programs with six Latin American countries by partnering with the University of Texas Libraries.

"Libraries of the future will be less defined by space than by function," Miller said, emphasizing one of his core beliefs. "It will still be the primary source of information, but there will be less use of the library's physical location."

An example is Miller's instant-message reference desk. Today, it's no longer necessary to ask a reference librarian a question in person or on the phone. Instead, a patron can go to the Pitt libraries' home page (www.library.pitt.edu) and send an instant message to an on-duty librarian and receive an answer within minutes.

That's just one way Miller's intellect and abilities have manifested themselves in a better library system, said James Maher, 66, Pitt's provost.

"Rush understands what people at a university need from a library, and he always has that in mind," Maher said. "No matter what he's doing, his focus is to equip people in the learning community to achieve the goal of using the library as a resource."

Maher said Miller's organizational skills enabled him to eliminate a bottleneck of books that resulted in recently purchased titles not reaching library shelves for about a year because they had to be catalogued.

"And he instituted a system where books and resources will come to the faculty, instead of them having to go to the library to get them," Maher said. "It's like ordering out for pizza."

Miller has guided Pitt to a No. 24 ranking — based on volumes held — out of the 118 largest academic libraries in the United States and Canada, according to the Association of Research Libraries. Penn State is 26th. Last year, Pitt added 161,000 print books and 350,000 electronic books to its roughly 5.7-million book collection. Penn State boasts about 5.5 million.

When Miller arrived at Pitt in 1994 from Bowling Green State University in Ohio, where he was the schools library system director, Pitt was 36th in the ranking, said Miller, who holds a doctorate in medieval history from Mississippi State University.

"Rush has been able to show a return on the investment of precious state dollars," said Fred Heath, director of the University of Texas Libraries. "He's one of a kind. What he's accomplished at Pitt just shows his underlying intellect and other social intangibles that go with being a capable person."

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