Dean Martha Minow has announced that HLS Professor Jonathan Zittrain ’95 and HLS Library’s Assistant Director of Research, Curriculum and Publication Services, Suzanne Wones, will take over leadership of the Harvard Law School Library this summer, following the departure of Professor John G. Palfrey ’01 in July. Palfrey announced in November that he will leave HLS to become the Head of School at the Phillips Academy Andover.
Zittrain, who is also a co-founder of the Berkman Center for Internet and Society, will become HLS’s Vice-Dean of Library and Information Resources. Wones will take on the role of Acting Executive Director.
Said Minow: “The Law School, the University and the wider world of researchers, scholars and students who explore the treasures of our extraordinary collections and materials will benefit greatly from the superb leadership of these two terrific experts. Jonathan will bring his exceptional understanding of access to information in the digital age, along with a strong and clear vision of how libraries must evolve through new tools and technologies. In that sense especially, he will continue and extend the remarkable and cutting-edge work begun by John Palfrey. In Suzanne, we will have an extremely talented and thoughtful administrator, well-equipped to lead the myriad operations and collaborations involved in the life of such an important institution at this time. I am delighted that they have agreed to take up these responsibilities and know that they will provide vital leadership.”
Zittrain and Wones have agreed to serve in their new roles for one academic year, after which the library’s leadership structure will be further assessed.
Zittrain will oversee the work of the executive director and the associate director, Kim Dulin, who leads the Harvard Library Innovation Lab. He will also chair the HLS Library Committee and represent HLS on the Harvard Library Board. He will serve as the primary liaison between the library and the faculty, oversee changes to the Collection Development Policy, and lead other matters concerning library strategy.
Wones will oversee all daily HLS Library activities, including research services, FRIDA, academic technology, empirical services, scholarly communications, case studies, collection development, historical and special collections, and digitization. She will also lead strategic planning with input from HLS and library administrators, develop and manage the library budget, steward faculty/library relationships, work with the HLS development office, and serve as a representative of the HLS Library within Harvard University and on HLS committees and working groups, at national conferences, and with collaborative partners.
These changes in the management structure at HLS Library will take effect on July 1, 2012.
Zittrain said: “John has pioneered HLS’s embrace of technology to advance the exchange of ideas. Suzanne and I hope to advance his vision for the development of a vibrant digital scholarly and teaching environment.”
Said Wones: “Accepting this role is slightly bittersweet for me as it comes with the impending departure of John Palfrey, who has done a tremendous job preparing the Harvard Law School Library for the future. At the same time, I am very excited to take on this new role and I’m looking forward to working more closely with Prof. Zittrain. We are entering a time of enormous change for the library over the next year, and I am glad to know that Prof. Zittrain will be with us as we endeavor to continue building on the strong foundations Vice-Dean Palfrey constructed. It is because of my complete confidence in our excellent library staff that I am delighted to help lead them through this time of transition. I am very grateful to Dean Minow for the opportunity.”
Said Palfrey: “I am extremely pleased to know that the Harvard Law School Library will be in such capable hands in the coming year. Jonathan and Suzanne are both extraordinary and they will complement one another in very effective ways. They are well-positioned to build on the work of a senior leadership team – including Cathy Conroy, Kim Dulin, and Pam Peifer – and a very talented library staff across the board who together have established a strong and positive culture at HLS Library. I’m excited to see what they will be able to accomplish, on behalf of the HLS community and the world of legal information at large, in the years to come.”
Zittrain is one of the world’s leading experts on the legal and policy issues surrounding the Internet. In addition to his roles at HLS, Zittrain is a member of the faculty of the Harvard Kennedy School and Professor of Computer Science at the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. He serves on the Board of Trustees of the Internet Society and the Electronic Frontier Foundation, and is on the board of advisors for Scientific American. He is also a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and has been a Forum Fellow of the World Economic Forum, which named him a Young Global Leader. Before joining HLS’s faculty in 2008, he was Professor of Internet Governance and Regulation at Oxford University. Zittrain also recently served as the Federal Communications Commission’s Distinguished Scholar, working on a range of issues related to 21st century communications networks.
Wones first joined Harvard in 2000 as a Reference Librarian at the Kennedy School Library, and went on to become the Head of Access and Research Services for the Harvard Kennedy School Library in 2004. In 2007, she accepted the HLS Library’s Head of Access Services position. Wones led the planning and implementation of the Scan & Deliver service at Harvard, and served on the steering committee for the HLS Library’s reorganization. She was appointed Assistant Director for Research, Curriculum and Publication Services in 2009. Before coming to Harvard, Wones earned her Master’s in Information Science at the University of Michigan.