Jim Pierson is Professor Emeritus of Anthropology at California State University, San Bernardino, where he was a faculty member 1971-2010. He was selected to the CSUSB College of Social and Behavioral Sciences Hall of Fame in 2014. He has a BA and MA from Sacramento State University and a Doctorate from Washington University in St. Louis. His primary anthropological field research was working with Indigenous Australians in the area of Adelaide, South Australia. Libraries played crucial roles in all of those activities.
Jim and his wife have lived in San Bernardino since 1971. Their children graduated from San Bernardino High School in 1994 and 1997. There have been many well-used city library cards with the name Pierson on them. Jim has been on the boards of the San Bernardino City Library Foundation and the Friends of the San Bernardino City Library. He is also on the board of Start Out Smart (SOS), an organization that distributes books to new parents to encourage reading with their children. He was a member of the board of the San Bernardino Valley Concert Association when it founded and opened the Garcia Center in San Bernardino.