Lehigh names inaugural Executive Director of Libraries

Lehigh University has named Boaz Nadav-Manes as its inaugural Executive Director of Libraries, effective March 1, 2019. This key appointment, the result of an extensive national search, will enable Lehigh to build upon the Lehigh Libraries’ long-standing legacy as a cornerstone of supporting and enhancing scholarship and learning at the university.

Nadav-Manes comes to Lehigh with broad experience in higher education library administration, most recently serving as Associate University Librarian for Access Services and Collection Management at Brown University, with responsibility for the management of collections budget of $12M, as well as oversight of Brown Library collection development, technical services, public services, resource sharing, preservation, and off-site storage. Focused on inclusive leadership, Nadav-Manes established the Diversity and Inclusion program in the library at Brown and strengthened ways by which units and departments can work more cohesively as a unified whole.

Before joining his colleagues at Brown, he served as a Senior Product Manager in the Online Computer Library Center (OCLC) in Leiden, Netherlands, and held several positions of increasing responsibility at the Cornell University Library. He has been active in leadership roles in a number of professional organizations, including in the Ivy Plus Libraries Collection Development, Technical Services, and Resource Sharing groups. Most recently, he served as chair of the The NorthEast Research Libraries consortium (NERL) Program Council Executive Committee.

“Boaz brings a thorough knowledge of current and future trends impacting research libraries and information services, as well as extensive experience in automation and digital content management,” said Bruce Taggart, Vice Provost for Library and Technology Services. “We are pleased to welcome Boaz on board to lead Lehigh’s libraries into the future with energy, imagination, and vision, especially as Lehigh embarks on its ambitious Path to Prominence initiatives.”

The Lehigh Libraries play a central role in supporting and enabling the interdependence of teaching, research, and scholarship at the university. As a member of the Library and Technology Services leadership team, Nadav-Manes will work in collaboration with library staff, Lehigh faculty, and other partners to innovate in areas of collection management, discovery services, digital curation and scholarly publishing, transforming the ways that faculty, students, and researchers create, discover, and access scholarly information.

Nadav-Manes will oversee the Lehigh libraries’ budget and lead the university’s participation in the Mellon Foundation-supported Open Library Environment (OLE) library management system and the evolving FOLIO (The Future of Libraries is Open) initiative, an open source library ecosystem in collaboration with EBSCO, Inc., Duke, University of Chicago, Cornell, Texas A&M, Colorado (Boulder), and several European libraries.

The Lehigh libraries’ collections include nearly 1M volumes, electronic books, and journal subscriptions. Nadav-Manes will oversee a staff of 39 employees at both Fairchild-Martindale and Linderman libraries, spanning Special Collections, Library Technology, Collections & Scholarly Communications, and Library Access.

“I am very honored and excited about this inaugural opportunity to connect Lehigh’s faculty, students, and alumni with expert library staff and resources, as well as the wider world of scholarship,” Nadav-Manes said. “While Lehigh is already well renowned for its innovative and inclusive culture, I am eager for us to find effective ways to successfully support Lehigh's ambition to expand, evolve, and explore new academic directions. I look forward to partnering with Lehigh’s staff to truly change lives and the world for the better.”

A native of Tel Aviv, Israel, Nadav-Manes earned a bachelor’s degree from Tel Aviv University, where he double-majored in Philosophy & Classics. He received his Masters of Fine Arts at Cornell University.