Mary Tao was appointed and served as Librarian in Residence from November 1, 1999 to October 26, 2001. She arrived at Yale after receiving her MLS from Long Island University and her BS degree from Carnagie Mellon University in Industrial Management. Mary divided her time at Yale between the Area Studies Division and the Social Sciences Library. Among her many accomplishments, she created a bibliography of resources for colonial Mexico, created web pages for the Slavic & Near Eastern Collections, performed reference and bibliographic instruction duties at the Social Sciences Library, and served on many Committees at Yale as well as on the national level.

After completing her two year residency, Mary was hire at Northwestern University.