Shannon Zachary worked in preservation at the University of Michigan Library from 1994 to 2023, when she retired as head of the Department of Preservation and Conservation. She began studying bookbinding and conservation with Anne and Theodore Kahle at the Capricornus School of Bookbinding in Berkeley, California. Subsequently she earned a City and Guilds of London Institute Certificate in Bookbinding at Brunel Technical College in Bristol, England, in 1984, and a Higher National Diploma in paper conservation at the Camberwell School of Art and Crafts in London in 1986. She was book conservator for rare and special collections at the Cornell University Library from 1987 to 1992 before moving to Ann Arbor to earn a master's degree in library studies at the University of Michigan.