With a background in higher education, library and information management and digital innovation, I am working to build an open information environment that serves everyone.
Current role
Currently, I am University Librarian and Dean of the University Library at the University of Chicago. As part of the university's academic leadership team, I am overseeing the operation of the university library and leading the process of developing and implementing a comprehensive strategic vision for the library's future within the university and the global knowledge system.
Previous roles
Most recently, I was Head of Content and Research Services at the British Library. Reporting to the Chief Librarian, I was responsible for ensuring that contemporary collections and research services met the needs of knowledge seekers and research organisations from the UK and abroard. This included overseeing functions such as: development and implementation of the Library's Content Strategy and Research Services Strategy; content acquisitions and processing of print and digital content, including legal deposit; preservation and management of the digital collections; the subject librarians; digital research services ranging from discovery to repositories, scholarly communications and research data, including the UK DataCite consortium; the redevelopment of the BL's digital library system; and a strategic change management portfolio to modernise our online and onsite research services.
Before joining the British Library, I oversaw the development of open access and research data services at Imperial College London. At Jisc, the UK's digital service provider for higher and further education, I was Programme Manager for digital infrastructure, leading programmes and innovation projects across the UK, including multi-million pound services such as the National Grid Service and the National Centre for Text Mining.
My background is in history, with a PhD from the University of Munich (LMU), and digital humanities and scholarly communications. At LMU I co-founded digital library services in the late 90s that today receive federal funding as part of the national information infrastructure of Germany. At King's College London, I was senior coordinator for a national network on digital research methods in the arts and humanities, and I developed digital community services and infrastructures at the Centre for E-Research.
External and community roles
Over the years, I have engaged with a range of communities and external organisations. Some of these activities include:
- Chair of the Ivy Plus Libraries Confederation
- Chair of the Open Repositories conference
- Chair of the advisory board for the library system of the University of Cologne
- Chair of DataCite's Services and Technology Steering Group
- Fellow of the Software Sustainability Institute
- Member of ARL's (Association of Research Libraries) Advocacy and Public Policy Committee
- Member of CORE's advisory board
- Member of DataCite's exectutive board
- Member of SPARC's steering committee
- Member of the US Repository Network steering group
- Member of the ZBIW (Centre for Library and Information Science) academic advisory board (2021-23)
- Chair of the Digital Shift working group of Research Libraries UK (RLUK) (2019-22)
- Co-Chair UK Research Identifier National Coordinating Committee (2021-22)
- Member of RLUK's Digital Scholarship Network (2018-22)
- Member of the Content Strategy Group of the Society of College, National and University Libraries (2018-21)
- Member of the Universities UK (UUK) open access coordination group (2016-19)
- Member of the Arts and Humanities Research Council's Digital Transformations Theme advisory group (2013-18)
Recent talks and keynotes
I regularly speak about information management, library services and topics such as scholarly communications and research infrastructures. Recent talks include:
- The Banned Book Club: Taking a Stand Against Book Bans; WoWFEST: FAHRENHEIT 2024; Online; 13 May 2024
- Panelist: Revolutionizing Schools: The AI Impact on Education from K-12 to College; 2024 Chicago Booth Education Management Conference; Chicago; 29 March 2024
- Keynote: Leadership in a time of challenge and change; RLUK conference; Online; 20 March 2024
- Panelist: The Library of the Future; Symposium: The University of the Future; Tübingen; 11 November 2023
- Panelist: The OSTP Public Access Guidance: After One Year, What We've Learned and Where We Go Next; Charleston Conference; Charleston SC; 8 November 2023
- Moderator: Beyond ChatGPT: The Impact of AI on Society; Harper Lecture; Chicago/Online; 1 November 2023
- Panelist: State of the Academic Library Round Table; SCUP 2023 Annual Conference; Cleveland, Ohio; 31 July 2023
- Panelist, Research & Scholarly Publishing Forum; London Book Fair; London; 20 April 2023
- Panelist: Democracy and A.I.: Rethinking Rights for Digital Challenges; Democracy and A.I.: Rethinking Rights for Digital Challenges; Chicago; 31 March 2023
- Social Machines. Opportunities and Challenges for Research Libraries; Jahrestagung des AK Bibliotheken der Leibniz-Gemeinschaft 2022; Online/Berlin; 7 September 2022
- Building Trust Together: Integrating, Collaborating & Sharing; keynote panel at Open Repositories 2022; Denver, 7 June 2022
- Does anybody care about digital preservation? Digital preservation from a perspective of access, collaboration and purpose; keynote at iPRESS 2021 – 17th International Conference on Digital Preservation; Online/Beijing; 21 October 2021
- RLUK manifesto for the digital shift in research libraries; Deutscher Bibliothekartag; Online/Bremen; 18 June 2021
- Shared repositories: building (multi-tenancy) repository services at the British Library; Open Repositories 2021 (with Jenny Basford and Sara Gould); Online; 9 June 2021
- Honey, I shrunk the Collections. Considering the library collection in the age of the internet and open science; Building Collaborative Collections and Transforming Access; Online; 25 March 2021
- The perfect storm. Challenges for research libraries in the coming decade; Library Science Talks; Online; 9 February 2021
- On the verge of success – or failure? Repositories and the wider knowledge infrastructure, plus a bit about Hyku; keynote at Samvera Connect; Online; 23 October 2020
- A Manifesto for the Digital Shift in Research Libraries. Report from RLUK’s Digital Shift Working Group; RLUK launch: A manifesto for the digital shift in research libraries; Online; 18 May 2020
- Alone in the Dark? Research Data and Open Science Infrastructures as Community Challenges; Museum Librarians and Archivists Group conference: "Managing research data for the cultural sector"; London; 7 February 2020
- A research library service paradigm for the 2020s?; Association of Research Libraries: ‘On the Edge’ program; Online; 7 & 14 January 2020