Former dean Lorraine Haricombe to speak on libraries and digital scholarship

LAWRENCE — When Lorraine Haricombe served as dean of University of Kansas Libraries, she helped KU become the first public university in the nation to adopt a universitywide open access policy — a significant shift in how scholarship is shared with the world. 

More than a decade later, that work has grown into a global movement, and Haricombe is returning to Lawrence to talk about what comes next. 

KU Libraries will welcome Haricombe at 10 a.m. May 20 in Watson Library’s 3 West Reading Room for the next installment of its “Global Conversations in Librarianship” series. Her talk, “Beyond Borders: Libraries in Motion in an Age of Digital Scholarship,” will examine how libraries can harness digital tools to build more open, inclusive and connected systems of knowledge — ideas she spent her career putting into practice across the U.S. and Africa. The hybrid presentation will be available worldwide via Zoom webinar for pre-registered guests. 

Haricombe recently retired after a 50-year career in libraries, most recently as vice provost and director of the University of Texas Libraries. She served as dean of KU Libraries from 2006 to 2014 and as dean of libraries at Bowling Green State University from 2001 to 2006. 

Her talk will explore how digital environments enable libraries to foster inclusive partnerships, amplify underrepresented voices and promote equitable access to global scholarship. Haricombe will also address how libraries are redefining their roles as connectors and conveners, supporting interdisciplinary research and community-engaged scholarship. 

During her tenure at KU, Haricombe worked with faculty and librarians to make the university the first public institution in the nation with a universitywide open access policy. She has also been a longtime supporter of open educational resources initiatives through personal giving to KU Libraries. 

Her open access work continues through the Coalition of Open Access Policy Institutions, hosted by the Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition, or SPARC, and through SPARC-Africa, where she has worked to advance open access at higher education institutions across Africa. 

Throughout her career, Haricombe held leadership roles in key library organizations. She served as a member of the board of directors of the Association of Research Libraries and as ARL president in 2019-2020. She has also chaired the steering committee of SPARC and the Greater Western Library Alliance and serves as an elected member of the International Federation of Library Associations' Standing Committee on Academic and Research Libraries. She has served on Harvard Libraries' Visiting Committee and is a member of the Hesburgh Libraries Advisory Council at the University of Notre Dame, the Libraries National Council at Washington University and the board of trustees of the Atlanta University Center's Robert W. Woodruff Library. 

The series is presented by KU Libraries' Institute for Globally Engaged Librarianship (IGEL), which promotes international partnerships and cross-cultural understanding in library and information science. Speakers share current projects, institutional innovations and emerging themes shaping the global library community. The series is hosted primarily online throughout the year. 

Zoom registration and additional information about the series, and future speakers are available at the IGEL webpage.