CLIR has appointed Carol A. Mandel Distinguished Presidential Fellow. Mandel is dean emerita of New York University (NYU) Libraries and currently serves on the CLIR Board.
Mandel will systematically consider the societal and institutional frameworks that can expand scalable, sustainable approaches to preserving various types of digital content. Building on extensive work already done in the preservation community, she will frame and articulate issues and facilitate structured conversations to map potential sources of initiative and resources in different sectors.
“As we confront the challenges of cultural heritage preservation in our digital age, the societal and institutional frameworks we have been operating under to capture and preserve documentary evidence for the future no longer match the nature and scale of the task,” said Mandel. “We have an outstanding digital preservation community continually expanding their work and expertise. My goal is to find ways to leverage that work to preserve the most content possible.”
“CLIR has a distinguished history in promoting the preservation of our cultural heritage across many media,” said CLIR president Charles Henry. “Carol Mandel’s research, focusing on preserving digital content, will provide insight and acumen integral to help guide and manage our collective response to this uniquely complex and urgent challenge.”
As dean of the NYU Division of Libraries from 1999 to 2018, Mandel oversaw the university’s libraries in New York, Abu Dhabi, and Shanghai; along with Campus Media Services and the NYU Press. Her work has focused on the reconceptualization and redesign of infrastructures, services, and partnerships to achieve the research library’s core mission in a digital multimedia age. Throughout her career, she has held leadership positions in organizations shaping new modes of collaboration and services, including serving as president of the Association of Research Libraries and chair of the boards of DLF and ArchivesSpace. Mandel was a member of the landmark 1996 Task Force on Digital Archiving convened by CLIR and RLG and of LC’s NDIIPP Advisory Board and has continued to work toward expanding digital preservation capacities. At NYU, she led the formation of a strong digital preservation program, which has included early and continuing work on web archiving, repository development, and ground-breaking work in audiovisual media preservation.
The Council on Library and Information Resources is an independent, nonprofit organization that forges strategies to enhance research, teaching, and learning environments in collaboration with libraries, cultural institutions, and communities of higher learning.
