BSA Leadership News: Departure of Executive Director Erin McGuirl

On 9 June 2025, Erin McGuirl will leave her position as Executive Director of the Bibliographical Society of America (BSA) to become Curator of the Mortimer Rare Book Collection at Smith College. McGuirl has served as the Executive Director since September 2018. She was the first full-time and salaried Executive Director for the BSA – a position created out of the need and desire to professionalize the organization for the twenty-first century. McGuirl understood the charge laid out by then BSA President Barbara A. Shailor and made this vision a reality.

Throughout her tenure, McGuirl has emphasized the importance of fellowship and community-building within the organization and modeled an inclusive and welcoming ethos to the broader public. She has maintained a culture of philanthropy in the BSA, and she has burnished its reputation as a forward-moving and eminently relevant learned society for the twenty-first century.

The Officers and the Council are pleased to announce the appointment of Martin Antonetti as Interim Executive Director and the promotion of Kaitlyn Kutschera to Programs and Administration Manager. During Martin’s six-month appointment, he will support the Council in organizing a nationwide search for the next Executive Director and Kaitlyn will sustain BSA’s programs and operations.

As the Executive Committee of the BSA prepares for the leadership transition ahead, it extends its sincere and heartfelt thanks to Erin McGuirl for her years of service to the organization. Our future looks bright because of the work she has done for BSA members and stakeholders, and for the wide, wide world of books of which we are all a part.

–The BSA Officers: Kinohi Nishikawa, Megan Peiser, Patrick Olson, and Meghan Constantinou