Charlotte Hess, Associate Dean for Research, Collections, & Scholarly Communication, Syracuse University Library
Charlotte Hess is the Associate Dean for Research, collections, and scholarly communication at Syracuse University Library. She is responsible for guiding new initiatives to evaluate, strengthen, and promote the collections of the SU libraries. She also provides leadership in developing goals, and determining policies and directions to meet the challenges of the changing modes of scholarly communication.
Hess was the founder and former director of the Digital Library of the Commons http://dlc.dlib.indiana.edu. Before coming to Syracuse in August 2008 she was Director of Library and Information Services at the workshop in Political Theory and Policy Analysis, Indiana University. She has been the Information Officer for the International Association for the Study of the Commons since 1997.
Hess has an extensive publication record and has been a presenter or planner for numerous national and international professional conferences. She co-edited “Understanding Knowledge as a Commons: From Theory to Practice” (MIT, 2007). She has also been a key contributor to website development and has been a consultant in the research areas of the commons and knowledge management for several African universities. She has been the information officer and served on the executive council ofthe International Association for the Study of the Commons since 1997.
Her research interests are: Knowledge as a commons; new commons; the preservation of the scholarly record; international scholarly collaboration; the digital divide and information equity; particularly in Africa; open access; peer production and mass collaboration.