NERL Governance Structure
- Board of Directors
- Board of Directors Executive Committee
- Program Council
- Program Council Executive Committee
- Program Council Members
A Board of Directors, comprising the university librarians from all NERL core member institutions, will have responsibility for the overall policy, financial and hosting decisions for the organization. An Executive Committee of six members of the Board will be elected by the members of the Board for terms of three years. A chair of the Board will be elected annually by the members of the Executive Committee. A representative of the NERL host institution will serve as an ex officio, non-voting member of the Board and of its Executive Committee. The chair of the NERL Program Council will serve as an ex officio, non-voting member of the Board and its Executive Committee.
K. Matthew Dames, Boston University, 7/1/2018-6/30/2021
Trevor A. Dawes, University of Delaware, 7/1/2017-6/30/2020
Gregory T. Eow, Center for Research Libraries, Ex-Officio Member
Anne Jarvis, Princeton University, 7/1/2017-6/30/2020
Susanne Mehrer, Dartmouth College, 7/1/2018-6/30/2021
Kornelia Tancheva, University of Pittsburgh, 7/1/2019 – 6/30/2022
Winston Taub, Johns Hopkins University, 7/1/2019 – 6/30/2022
A Program Council, comprising a representative from all NERL core member institutions, will have responsibility for the overall program and operations for the organization. An Executive Committee of six members of the Council will be elected by the members of the Council for three year terms. A representative of the NERL host institution will serve as an ex officio, non-voting member of the Program Council and its Executive Committee. A chair of the Council will be elected to a two year term by the members of the Executive Committee, and this individual will be an ex officio, non-voting member of the Board and its Executive Committee.
Jesse Koennecke, Cornell University, 7/1/2019 – 6/60/2022
Julie Linden, Yale University, 7/1/2018 – 6/60/2021
Kenneth Peterson, Dartmouth College, 7/1/19 – 6/30/2022
Maggie Saponaro (Interim Chair), University of Maryland, 7/1/2018 – 6/60/2021
Gracemary Smulewitz, Rutgers University, 7/1/2019-6/30/2020
Brigitte Weinsteiger, University of Pennsylvania, 7/1/2017 – 6/30/2020
Program Council Members
- Christine Conroy, Boston College
- Steve Smith, Boston University
- Patricia Putney, Brown University
- Christopher Cronin, Columbia University
- Jesse Koennecke, Cornell University
- Kenneth Peterson, Dartmouth College
- Jeff Kosokoff, Duke University
- Vani Murthy, Georgetown University
- Cathy Zeljak, George Washington University
- Ardys Kozbial, Harvard University
- Alliah Humber, Howard University
- Elizabeth Mengel, Johns Hopkins University
- Kim Maxwell, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
- Bill Maltarich, New York University
- Patty Gaspari-Bridges, Princeton University
- Gracemary Smulewitz, Rutgers University
- Sarah Forzetting , Stanford University
- Scott Warren, Syracuse University
- J. Brian Schoolar, Temple University
- Jane Strudwick, University of Connecticut
- Susan Davi, University of Delaware
- Maggie Saponaro, University of Maryland
- Sally Krash, University of Massachusetts at Amherst
- Lisa Fish, University of Miami
- Louis Jordon, University of Notre Dame
- Brigitte Weinsteiger, University of Pennsylvania
- Tracey Olanyk, University of Pittsburgh
- Lindsey Kronk, University of Rochester
- Nancy Godleski, Vanderbilt University
- Julie Linden, Yale University
Our History
The Formation of NERL
July 1996
NERL, originally known as the NorthEast Research Libraries Consortium, was formed in July 1996 for the dual purpose of jointly licensing electronic resources to obtain more favorable terms, and to cooperate on issues related to the lifecycle management of electronic resources. Yale University Library led the effort to establish the consortium with an initial group of twelve core member institutions. Britannica Online and Academic Press’s IDEAL were among the first ground-breaking agreements brokered by the consortium. The success of NERL in support of the academic mission of member institutions was reflected in a growing number of core members and the addition of affiliate members who were able to join in on specific NERL-brokered offers.
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April 2013
Yale University Library served as the legal and physical home of the consortium from 1996 to 2013. The growth of NERL into one of the largest library consortia groups eventually outstripped the support Yale could provide. In April 2013, NERL transferred operations to the Center for Research Libraries (CRL) in Chicago, Illinois. CRL’s cooperative collection-building efforts, born in the print era, and expanded into helping academic research libraries obtain online access to primary source content for researchers was an ideal new home for NERL. Under the auspices of CRL, NERL has evolved into an even stronger force for change in the scholarly communications landscape.
Today
NERL’s mission continues to support its original goals by promoting, supporting, and advancing higher education and research through the cooperative licensing of scholarly electronic content. NERL maximizes effectiveness of consortial buying power to create greater efficiencies in licensing and purchasing resources, leveraging its combined resources to create a more equitable, accessible and durable model of scholarly communications that contributes to the sustainability of scholarly discourse for its member libraries and their parent institutions. NERL acts as an advocate to ensure cost-effective pricing, licensing terms, and conditions of use which allow for the broadest possible dissemination of scholarly material. NERL provides a convenient forum for collaboration and professional exchange of ideas.
NERL Partners and Affiliations
Center for Research Libraries
The Center for Research Libraries (CRL) is an international consortium of university, college, and independent research libraries. CRL’s deep and diverse collections are shaped by specialists and experts at the major U.S. and Canadian research universities, who work together to identify and preserve unique and uncommon documentation and evidence, to ensure its long-term integrity and accessibility to researchers worldwide. CRL has served as the organizational home for NERL since July of 2013.
Directory of Open Access Journals
Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) is a community-curated online directory that indexes and provides access to high quality, open access, peer-reviewed journals. Partnering with CRL, NERL actively supports the DOAJ and its mission to promote open access journals.
ICOLC
NERL is an active participating consortium with the International Coalition of Library Consortia. The members of ICOLC are dedicated to keeping participating consortia informed about new electronic information resources, pricing practices of electronic information providers and vendors, and other issues of importance to directors, governing boards, and libaries of consortia.
PROJECT COUNTER
NERL has been a member of Project COUNTER since its inception. Project COUNTER is an initiative launched in 2002 that has set standards and codes of practice that facilitate the recording and reporting of online usage statistics in a consistent, credible and compatible way.
PROJECT TRANSFER
Transfer is a UKSG initiative created to address the issues and problems involved with the transfer of journals from one publisher to another. The TRANSFER working group is made up of publishers and librarians who have established and published a standard Code of Practice to promote consistent guidelines for publishers to endorse and follow in order to minimize the disruption in access for users of the content.
SCOAP3
Sponsoring Consortium for Open Access Publishing in Particle Physics. In this model, HEP funding agencies and libraries, which today purchase journal subscriptions to implicitly support the peer-review service, federate to explicitly cover its cost, while publishers make the electronic versions of their journals free to read. Authors are not directly charged to publish their articles OA.
SERU
Shared E-Resource Understanding. Registrants have the option of using the general terms of best practice as articulated by the SERU Recommended Practice Report and copyright law. SERU allow vendors/publishers and member institutions to eliminate the need for lengthy license negotiation.
Our Staff
Christine M. Stamison, Director
Christine Stamison came to NERL in September of 2013 once NERL moved to the Center for Research Libraries in Chicago. Christine came with valuable experience in negotiating contracts and managing customer relations during her work with a subscription agency for 20 years. Previously she worked both at the University of Chicago and the University of Illinois at Chicago libraries. She received her MLIS at then Rosary College (now Dominican University).
Vida Bjelopetrovich, NERL Program Assistant
Vida Bjelopetrovich came to NERL in April 2014. Vida brought with her 20 years of domestic and international banking and years of involvement with systems conversions. She received her BA in International Relations and Soviet Foreign Policy from the University of Wisconsin – Madison.
Interested in becoming an affiliate member of NERL?
For any questions concerning becoming an affiliate NERL institution, please contact the NERL office.