Washington, DC, Nov. 16, 2017—The Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR) has appointed six new members to its Board of Directors.
Joining the board are Guy Berthiaume, Librarian and Archivist of Canada; Michele Casalini, chief executive officer of Casalini Libri; Christopher Celenza, dean of Georgetown College at Georgetown University; Tess Davis, executive director of the Antiquities Coalition; Richard Ovenden, Bodley’s Librarian at University of Oxford; and Sohair Wastawy, executive director of the Qatar National Library.
“CLIR’s commitment to international and inter-institutional collaboration is manifested in its governance; these highly distinguished new board members will help foster the organization’s vision of a coherent, robust, secure knowledge and cultural heritage environment for the future,” said CLIR Board Chair Kathleen Fitzpatrick.
CLIR President Charles Henry added, “Our new board members bring an exciting diversity of professional experience and interests to CLIR, a rich array of insight and practical acumen that will strengthen our mission to foster and support communities of shared technical practice and provide leadership to develop sustainable information resources that augment human capacity.”
Guy Berthiaume is a Canadian historian who specializes in the study of classical antiquity. Before becoming the Librarian and Archivist of Canada in June 2014, he served for five years as the chair and chief executive officer of the Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec.
Michele Casalini is chief executive officer of Casalini Libri, a family-run business based in Florence, Italy, providing bibliographic search and supply services for academic libraries and supporting publishers through promotion and distribution. He has a special interest in the digital transition in humanities and social sciences academic publishing.
Christopher Celenza is dean of Georgetown College at Georgetown University, where he is also a professor of history and classics. He came to Georgetown in 2017 from Johns Hopkins University, where he most recently served as vice provost for faculty affairs and held the Charles Homer Haskins Professorship in Classics.
Tess Davis, a lawyer and archaeologist by training, serves as executive director of the Washington, DC-based Antiquities Coalition. Since 2013, she has been affiliated with the Scottish Centre for Crime and Justice Research at the University of Glasgow, and before that served as executive director of the Lawyers’ Committee for Cultural Heritage Preservation.
Richard Ovenden is Bodley’s Librarian at University of Oxford, the 25th person to hold the title. He has served on the staff of Durham University Library, the House of Lords Library, the National Library of Scotland, and the University of Edinburgh. He is a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London and member of the American Philosophical Society.
Sohair Wastawy was recently appointed executive director of the Qatar National Library. She previously served as dean of libraries at Florida Institute of Technology, Illinois State University, and Illinois Institute of Technology. She was the first chief librarian for the new Bibliotheca Alexandrina in Egypt.
A complete list of Board members is available at https://www.clir.org/about/governance.
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. CLIR promotes forward-looking collaborative solutions that transcend disciplinary, institutional, professional, and geographic boundaries in support of the public good.