SUBSCRIBE
SUBSCRIBE
EXPLORE +
  • About infoDOCKET
  • Academic Libraries on LJ
  • Research on LJ
  • News on LJ
  • Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Libraries
    • Academic Libraries
    • Government Libraries
    • National Libraries
    • Public Libraries
  • Companies (Publishers/Vendors)
    • EBSCO
    • Elsevier
    • Ex Libris
    • Frontiers
    • Gale
    • PLOS
    • Scholastic
  • New Resources
    • Dashboards
    • Data Files
    • Digital Collections
    • Digital Preservation
    • Interactive Tools
    • Maps
    • Other
    • Podcasts
    • Productivity
  • New Research
    • Conference Presentations
    • Journal Articles
    • Lecture
    • New Issue
    • Reports
  • Topics
    • Archives & Special Collections
    • Associations & Organizations
    • Awards
    • Funding
    • Interviews
    • Jobs
    • Management & Leadership
    • News
    • Patrons & Users
    • Preservation
    • Profiles
    • Publishing
    • Roundup
    • Scholarly Communications
      • Open Access

March 5, 2013 by Gary Price

Dan Cohen Named Founding Executive Director of the Digital Public Library of America

March 5, 2013 by Gary Price

Congrats to Dan Cohen!

The official announcement below includes info about Dan’s work and awards including the 2011 OCLC/LITA Frederick G. Kilgour Award for Research in Library and Information Technology and leading the development of Zotero, a bibliographic management tool we use and recommend to others. 
From Today’s DPLA Announcement:

The Digital Public Library of America (DPLA) announced today the appointment of Dan Cohen as the DPLA’s founding Executive Director.  Cohen, currently a tenured professor in the Department of History and Art History at George Mason University and the Director of the Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media, brings to the DPLA more than a decade of experience in digital humanities and a deep commitment to the future of libraries, archives, and museums.  Cohen will begin his tenure on April 18, 2013.
“Dan Cohen’s appointment is exceptionally good news for the future of the DPLA,” said John Palfrey, President of the DPLA Board of Directors. “Dan’s contributions to the field of digital humanities and to libraries are already extraordinary.  He has led major open source development projects, helped to digitize important works of culture, supported teachers and students in accessing fantastic digital materials, and written about the importance of libraries, archives, and museums in a digital age.  We are very fortunate that he has agreed to lead the DPLA as the founding executive director.”
“Dan Cohen’s appointment is exceptionally good news for the future of the DPLA,” said John Palfrey, President of the DPLA Board of Directors. “Dan’s contributions to the field of digital humanities and to libraries are already extraordinary.  He has led major open source development projects, helped to digitize important works of culture, supported teachers and students in accessing fantastic digital materials, and written about the importance of libraries, archives, and museums in a digital age.  We are very fortunate that he has agreed to lead the DPLA as the founding executive director.”
As the Executive Director, Cohen will work to further the DPLA’s mission to make the cultural and scientific heritage of humanity available, free of charge, to all.  He will manage the day-to-day operations of the new organization, will serve as the DPLA’s spokesperson, and will advocate for partners within and outside the larger DPLA community, among a range of other critical duties.
“I am so honored to be entrusted with leading the team that will take the next steps in making the wonderful idea of the Digital Public Library of America a reality,” said Cohen. “The notion of a large-scale open digital library for all, which will connect everyone to the riches of America’s libraries, archives, and museums, is profoundly important. I am deeply thankful for the hard work and tremendous vision of the DPLA’s Secretariat, Steering Committee, and Board of Directors, Harvard’s Berkman Center for Internet and Society, and the thousands of Americans who have participated in the DPLA’s planning process. I look forward to building upon this incredible foundation, and to partnering with people and institutions across the country to build a new library for the twenty-first century.”
Cohen currently serves as an Associate Professor in the Department of History and Art History at George Mason University, where he is the Director of the Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media. At the Center, Cohen has overseen projects ranging from new publishing ventures (PressForward) to online collections (September 11 Digital Archive) to software for scholarship (the popular Zotero research tool). His books include Digital History: A Guide to Gathering, Preserving, and Presenting the Past on the Web (with Roy Rosenzweig) and Equations from God: Pure Mathematics and Victorian Faith. Cohen was an inaugural recipient of the American Council of Learned Societies’ Digital Innovation Fellowship. In 2011 he received the Frederick G. Kilgour Award from the American Library Association for his work in digital humanities, and in 2012 he was named one of the top “tech innovators” in academia by the Chronicle of Higher Education.
Cohen was nominated by the DPLA Search Committee from a deep and competitive pool of candidates from around the world and across the public and private sectors. The Board of Directors gratefully acknowledges those who nominated others or themselves for the position, as well as the hard work of Michele Haertel and Jim Citrin at SpencerStuart for their work to identify and assess a wide range of candidates.  The Board also thanks the Search Committee, composed of Robert Darnton (Steering Committee), Laura DeBonis (Board of Directors), Carla Hayden (Steering Committee), Maura Marx (Steering Committee/Secretariat), John Palfrey (Board of Directors), and Doron Weber (Steering Committee), for their valuable contributions to the search process.
“We conducted a comprehensive and intensive search for the right person who could serve as the DPLA’s first head—a historic appointment for a history-making organization—and Dan really impressed us with his unique combination of smarts, experience, passion, and vision,” remarked Doron Weber, Vice Chair of the DPLA Steering Committee.  “He is a scholar and blogger who knows the digital world as well the library world, and a teacher and manager who understands the value of building consensus and community—as well as an effective fundraiser, marketer, and communicator—and we are fortunate to have him lead DPLA towards the fulfillment of its grand, unifying vision.”
“Dan’s appointment as the founding Executive Director of the DPLA is a significant and exciting milestone in the history of the project,” said Director Laura DeBonis. “Dan’s extensive managerial and research experience will be a truly indispensable asset to the development of the DPLA as an essential, sustainable national digital resource.”
Cohen holds a B.A. in Religion and History of Science from Princeton, a Masters in Theological Studies from Harvard University, and a Ph.D. in History from Yale University.

See Also: Dan Cohen’s Web Site and CV

Filed under: Archives and Special Collections, Awards, Digital Collections, Digital Preservation, Interactive Tools, Libraries, Management and Leadership, News, Public Libraries, Publishing

SHARE:

lj

About Gary Price

Gary Price (gprice@gmail.com) is a librarian, writer, consultant, and frequent conference speaker based in the Washington D.C. metro area. He earned his MLIS degree from Wayne State University in Detroit. Price has won several awards including the SLA Innovations in Technology Award and Alumnus of the Year from the Wayne St. University Library and Information Science Program. From 2006-2009 he was Director of Online Information Services at Ask.com.

ADVERTISEMENT

Archives

Job Zone

ADVERTISEMENT

Related Infodocket Posts

New Report: "Alternative Publishing Platforms. What Have We Learnt?"

From Knowledge Exchange: Different alternative publishing platforms have appeared over recent years. But what are their pros and cons? Do they differ significantly from traditional scholarly journals? To better understand ...

Not Real News: An Associated Press Roundup of Untrue Stories Shared Widely on Social Media This Week

From the Associated Press: A roundup of some of the most popular but completely untrue stories and visuals of the week. None of these are legit, even though they were ...

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is Hosting a Virtual Roundtable on AI and Content Creation on October 4th

From the Federal Trade Commission: The Federal Trade Commission staff will be hosting a virtual roundtable discussion on October 4, 2023 to better understand the impact of the use of ...

Andrea Jackson Gavin Appointed Inaugural Program Director of the HBCU Digital Library Trust

Below is the Full Text of the Announcement Letter (via the Harvard Library): We are delighted to announce the appointment of Andrea Jackson Gavin as the inaugural Program Director of the ...

U.S. Census Releases 2020 Data for Nearly 1,500 Detailed Race and Ethnicity Groups, Tribes and Villages

From the U.S. Census: The U.S. Census Bureau today released 2020 Census population counts and sex-by-age statistics for 300 detailed race and ethnic groups, as well as 1,187 detailed American ...

Book Bans Spike by 33% During the Last School Year, According to New Research by PEN America

From PEN America:  The number of public school book bans across the country increased by 33 percent in the 2022-23 school year compared to the 2021-22 school year, according to ...

Penn State Leads Big Ten Academic Alliance Project on Open Homework Systems; ChatGPT Usage is Rising Again as...

AI ChatGPT Usage is Rising Again as Students Return to School (via Bloomberg) Universities Rethink Using AI Writing Detectors to Vet Students’ Work (via Bloomberg) Amazon AI-Generated Books Force Amazon ...

$800,000 Budget Cut Proposed: West Virginia University Library System Plans to Reduce Staff, Modify Space Amid University Cuts;...

From WCHS: Following the vote to cut 28 majors and more than 100 faculty positions at West Virginia University, the university’s library system could be the next to take the ...

American Library Association (ALA) Releases Preliminary Data on 2023 Book Challenges; Highest Number of Book Challenges Since ALA...

UPDATE LeVar Burton to Lead 2023 Banned Books Week as Honorary Chair (via ALA) —End Update— Below is the full text of a statement released today by the American Library ...

Harris County Libraries Declared a 'Book Sanctuary' Amid State Crackdown; UCLA Library Receives $4.2 Million Political Cartoon Collection...

Acquisitions UCLA Library Receives $4.2 Million Political Cartoon Collection Spanning Centuries (via UCLA  California At 20, San Jose’s MLK Library Remains a Partnership For the Books (via The Mercury News) ...

The Lens Loads Now Open Dataset From Crossref of Retraction Watch Papers; Digital Science Announces Brand Redesign for...

Clarivate Clarivate Unveils Citation Laureates 2023 – Annual List of Researchers of Nobel Class Digital Science Digital Science Announces Brand Redesign for ReadCube and Papers Internet Archive IMLS National Leadership Grant ...

New From AUPresses & Ithaka S+R: "Print Revenue and Open Access Monographs: A University Press Study"

From a Joint News Release: The Association of University Presses (AUPresses) and Ithaka S+R today publish “Print Revenue and Open Access Monographs: A University Press Study.” This report is the ...

ADVERTISEMENT

FOLLOW US ON TWITTER

Tweets by infoDOCKET

ADVERTISEMENT

This coverage is free for all visitors. Your support makes this possible.

This coverage is free for all visitors. Your support makes this possible.

Primary Sidebar

  • News
  • Reviews+
  • Technology
  • Programs+
  • Design
  • Leadership
  • People
  • COVID-19
  • Advocacy
  • Opinion
  • INFOdocket
  • Job Zone

Reviews+

  • Booklists
  • Prepub Alert
  • Book Pulse
  • Media
  • Readers' Advisory
  • Self-Published Books
  • Review Submissions
  • Review for LJ

Awards

  • Library of the Year
  • Librarian of the Year
  • Movers & Shakers 2022
  • Paralibrarian of the Year
  • Best Small Library
  • Marketer of the Year
  • All Awards Guidelines
  • Community Impact Prize

Resources

  • LJ Index/Star Libraries
  • Research
  • White Papers / Case Studies

Events & PD

  • Online Courses
  • In-Person Events
  • Virtual Events
  • Webcasts
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Advertise
  • Subscribe
  • Media Inquiries
  • Newsletter Sign Up
  • Submit Features/News
  • Data Privacy
  • Terms of Use
  • Terms of Sale
  • FAQs
  • Careers at MSI


© 2023 Library Journal. All rights reserved.


© 2022 Library Journal. All rights reserved.