Organization Chart
Northwestern Libraries is organized into 15 departments with over 150 full-time employees. Northwestern University Press is affiliated with the Libraries.
VIEW CURRENT ORGANIZATION CHART
The organization is guided by collaboration and a dedication to academic excellence.
- See Mission and Values
- See the Vision for the Libraries
Departments
Northwestern Libraries are comprised of the following departments. To contact specific departments, see the staff directory.
Academic Innovation transforms digital research by using a range of digital tools and methods to conduct research, teaching, and learning, as well as developing as well and deploying software to support the discovery, access, and use of digital resources.
Key functions:
- Collaborating with faculty and students to develop projects integrating scholarly methodology with technological skills, including machine learning, text analysis, data mining, and other data science techniques
- Developing and administering the Libraries’ digital repositories, including Digital Collections
- Producing digital-first scholarly resources, publications and grant funding
- Aiding faculty and graduate students with research data management plans
- Collaborating and consulting on digital publishing and digital humanities
- Undertaking special digitization projects to bring Northwestern's unique and rare collections to researchers around the world
- Describing digital objects with appropriate metadata
- Developing and deploying software to support the discovery and access of digital collections
Access Services delivers resources to users and manages the operations and procedures of circulating both local collections and interlibrary loans. The action philosophy of the department is "Get it For Them" (GIFT).
Key functions:
- Managing the circulation of materials, including retrieving and re-shelving the print collection and fulfilling to interlibrary loan requests
- Staffing the service desks and managing user policies and procedures
- Digitizing materials for course reserve and for document delivery requests
Acquisitions and Metadata Services handles the establishment of library collections and creates, maintains, and shares metadata for library resources.
Key functions:
- Acquiring and licensing the collections materials
- Receiving, checking-in, claiming, and paying for library collections materials
- Establishing and maintaining seamless access to online content Initiating and fulfilling requests for collection analysis and assessment
- Acquiring, creating, maintaining, and sharing metadata for library resources
- Serving as a leader in cataloging, metadata, and library platform communities
- Contributing to the development and implementation of metadata systems and standards at the national and international levels
Assessment and Planning develops and facilitates collaborative library assessment initiatives, planning, and project management processes that demonstrate the library’s success in meeting strategic goals and supporting the University strategic plan.
Key functions:
- Providing leadership to promote the integration of assessment into all aspects of library services and operations
- Creating a library assessment plan that can measure the success of library initiatives and incorporate that knowledge into strategic planning
- Developing new assessment tools and processes, in consultation with library leaders, to enable data-driven strategic decisions
- Providing guidance and support for strategic and budget planning, business analysis, project management and internal data stewardship
- Developing and maintain a project management template bank and providing support for its use
- Creating communities of practice around project management, assessment and data ownership stewardship
Building safety contact:
- For emergencies, call 911
- For non-emergencies, call 847-467-1092 or email fosm@northwestern.edu
Business Operations Support manages the business, facilities, receiving and security functions for the Libraries.
Key functions:
- Conducting budget planning, forecasting and monitoring for libraries resources and grants
- Operating accounts receivable, accounts payable and purchasing services, and acting as liaison to University Procurement and Payment Services
- Manage the library loading dock and mail services
- Providing guidance on building safety and security, as well as emergency preparedness
- Staffing welcome and safety desks
- Operating libraries facilities and acting as liaison to University Facilities
The McCormick Library comprises a constellation of special, archival and other curated collections that bring together original, rare, and unique materials in traditional and digital formats—among them printed texts, manuscripts, photographs, film, recordings, and images—with strong collections of supporting published materials in specific subject areas.
Key functions:
- Curating and acquiring the McCormick Library collections
- Maintaining documentation and knowledge of
- Engaging students and faculty with special collections and archives by collaborating with faculty on research and instruction services
- Staffing the McCormick Reading Room and responding to user requests
- Stewarding rare and unique materials, including processing special collections and archives and developing finding aids
Distinctive Collections and Research Services provides a foundation of research support for users by providing collections and consultation services.
Key functions:
- Building and managing comprehensive research collections
- Engaging students and scholars with distinctive collections, including the Transportation and African Studies collections
- Providing information on materials accessibility and enabling access to materials by providing accommodations and alternatives
- Assisting patrons with both general and specialized research, including customized services for different disciplines and interdisciplinary groups
- Providing guidance on copyright in scholarly research, publishing and teaching
Learning and Engagement connects the Libraries with our user communities to advance research, teaching, and learning at Northwestern and provides continuing education support for the academic activities of Northwestern.
Key functions:
- Leading the Libraries liaison program; a large team of subject, technical and collection specialists who interface with the campus
- Collaborating with faculty to incorporate library instruction and expertise into courses
- Promoting student learning by drawing on the Libraries' collections, technology, professional staff, and facilities
- Coordinating programs for students and faculty, including orientations, to connect them with the Libraries services, resources and expertise
- Developing course guides, research guides, and Canvas modules
- Performing outreach and consultation on pedagogical uses of library resources and technology
IT Infrastructure provides and supports the technological needs of library staff and our patrons. In addition to installing and implementing new services and systems, it supports and maintains servers, systems, workstations and applications through their technology life cycle.
Key functions:
- Providing desktop support for library staff and patrons, including printing and application support
- Purchasing, tracking and licensing of software
- Training of staff and managing the Library IT Help Desk
- Administering servers and performing maintenance on library technology
- Collaborating with NUIT and other IT unites across campus
- Ensuring compliance with University IT policies
Marketing and Communication aids in outreach to raise awareness of library services and resources by promoting the Libraries through publications, social media, exhibitions and programming.
Key functions:
- Promoting libraries programming, including events, exhibits and workshops
- Managing the Libraries exhibit program and working with curators to produce physical and digital exhibits
- Managing the Libraries web presence, including the main website, social media, and Libraries blog
- Communicating with alumni and donor networks via publications such as Footnotes and newsletters
- Helping with event planning, graphic design and photography for Libraries programs
Organizational Development manages the Libraries’ human resources policies and programs, including recruitment, training, staff development, compensation, employee relations and records management.
Key functions:
- Managing recruitment, hiring and onboarding for the Libraries workforce
- Developing training and professional development programming for the Libraries workforce
- Developing programming for organizational culture
- Acting as the primary office for employee relations in the Libraries and advising Libraries administration on policies and procedures as well as implementing the policies and procedures of University Human Resources
- Acting as liaison to the University Human Resources
Preservation preserves library collections in all formats, including books, archival materials, audio, film and digital collections.
Key functions:
- Assessing and performing treatments on a wide variety of materials to maintain the collection for long-term use and storage
- Operating an in-house conservation lab to perform a broad range of treatments
- Creating binding and housing solutions for items requiring unique care
- Supporting exhibits and outreach programming by preparing items for display, travel and instruction
- Preparing items for digitization and microfilming
- Acting as liaison with various vendors who provide preservation services