2023

Dean of Libraries Xuemao Wang has appointed Kevin Leonard ’77, ’82 MS, the current University Archivist, to the new role of University Historian, effective January 1, 2024.

Northwestern Libraries is proud to announce our partnership with Penn State University Libraries and the University of Minnesota Libraries on a project for the Big Ten Academic Alliance (BTAA) to pilot a library-led service model for supporting hosted, open source, online homework delivery systems as supplemental resources for teaching with open educational resources (OER).

Northwestern Libraries are pleased to introduce the Faculty Advisory Committee. Though previously the Libraries had an advisory group that included both faculty and students, this new committee focuses specifically on faculty input and interests. As an advisory group for the Dean of Libraries, the committee will have a key role in making recommendations on policy matters, new initiatives, collections, and services.

James Lee joins Northwestern on September 1 as associate University librarian for academic innovation. He also begins a joint appointment as a tenured associate professor in the Medill School of Journalism, Media, Integrated Marketing Communications.

After a year in an interim leadership role, Rachel Cole has been appointed the head of the Transportation Library at Northwestern University Libraries. Cole has worked in the Transportation Library since 2015, beginning as a reference librarian. Since then, she has established herself as an asset to the Libraries’ research and engagement programs, said Xuemao Wang, Dean of Libraries.

Beginning in September 2023, Northwestern Libraries will shift support for Open Access publishing to institutional-level initiatives. The scholarly publishing landscape has evolved over the past decade resulting in several initiatives that advance OA at the collective level. The Libraries currently support several of these initiatives for Northwestern and participate in additional initiatives as a partner in the Big Ten Academic Alliance.

Northwestern Libraries is pleased to share the announcement from the Big Ten Academic Alliance (BTAA) of the extension of its landmark open publishing agreement with Wiley. The three-year agreement, which will be effective as of January 1, 2023, gives 14 participating universities, including Northwestern, access to publish and read in Wiley’s full journal portfolio, including Hindawi’s gold open access portfolio.