On November 2, 2022, President Ron Daniels and Provost Sunil Kumar sent the following announcement by email to the Johns Hopkins community.
Dear Faculty, Staff, and Students:
In December of last year, we announced Winston Tabb’s decision to retire as the Sheridan Dean of University Libraries, Archives, and Museums following 20 years of outstanding service to Johns Hopkins University. We launched a search for his successor in the spring and charged the search committee with identifying exceptional candidates who could build on the success of our libraries and museums and help set the vision for what the modern academic library should be at Johns Hopkins. Following a comprehensive national search, we have selected a candidate with extensive and varied experience in libraries who brings energy and a deep understanding of the research enterprise to this important position.
We are thrilled to announce the appointment of Elisabeth Long as the next Sheridan Dean of University Libraries, Archives, and Museums, beginning Jan. 3, 2023.
Elisabeth comes to Johns Hopkins with almost 30 years of experience at the University of Chicago Library, where she has held the position of associate librarian for information technology and digital scholarship since 2016. She was also appointed interim library director and university librarian within the past year, a position in which she led the university’s library system and a staff of roughly 200 people.
Elisabeth is on the senior leadership team at the University of Chicago Library and provides budget planning, assessment, and leadership in driving strategic priorities. She is currently overseeing digital scholarship services for students and faculty and is responsible for the library’s IT infrastructure that supports the preservation of digital archives, books, and data. Originally trained as a book artist, she has a broad set of technological skills, along with a passion for the physical book, special collections, and facilitating open and accessible scholarship. She has experience working with scholars from a wide spectrum of disciplines to apply digital technologies to the creation and preservation of research.
Known for her collaborative leadership style, Elisabeth is committed to growing and further developing partnerships between our libraries, archives, and museums, and local communities in Baltimore and Washington. Part of her current portfolio at Chicago includes the Black Metropolis Research Consortium, a collaboration of regional institutions hosted by the University of Chicago that promotes the acquisition, processing, and use of archival collections documenting Black history and culture in Chicago. Before that, for 16 years, she managed the eCUIP Digital Library Project, which produced high-quality digital content for the Chicago Public Schools as part of a broader initiative to equip predominantly underresourced schools with enhanced technology and infrastructure.
Elisabeth holds a Master of Library Science degree from the University of Maryland with a focus on historical research, archives, and rare books, as well as a Master of Fine Arts in Interdisciplinary Book and Paper Arts from Columbia College Chicago. She was accepted in 2018 into the prestigious Association of Research Libraries Leadership Fellows program, which develops the next generation of senior library and archive leaders.
We would like to thank the members of the search committee, led by Dean Celenza, for its excellent work to bring this search to a successful conclusion. We also thank Winston once again for his invaluable record of achievements during his tenure as dean and for his leadership this past year while the search was underway.
We are confident that Elisabeth’s experience, her breadth of expertise, and her commitment to excellence will serve the university well in the years ahead. Please join me in welcoming Elisabeth to Johns Hopkins.
Sincerely,
Ron Daniels
President
Sunil Kumar
Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs