NERL Governance Structure
- Board of Directors
- Program Council Members
- Board of Directors Members
- Program Council
- Program Council Executive Committee
The NERL Board of Directors is charged with leading the NERL consortium as it implements the NERL Roadmap for Change. The NERL Board of Directors assumes responsibility for the overall policy, financial, and hosting decisions for the NERL program. The NERL Board of Directors also provides guidance, advocacy, and support for the NERL Program Council and its Executive Committee (PCEC).
Program Council Members
- Maridath A. Wilson, Boston College
- Michael Fernandez, Boston University
- Niamh McGuigan, Brown University
- Leah Dunn, Columbia University
- Jesse Koennecke, Cornell University
- Qiana Johnson, Dartmouth College
- (Chair) Virginia Martin, Duke University
- Ryan Johnson, Georgetown University
- Cathy Zeljak, George Washington University
- Ardys Kozbial, Harvard University
- Adia Coleman, Howard University
- Elizabeth Mengel, Johns Hopkins University
- Kim Maxwell, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
- Bill Maltarich, New York University
- Patty Gaspari-Bridges, Princeton University
- Jeff Carroll, Rutgers University
- Sarah Forzetting , Stanford University
- Scott Warren, Syracuse University
- J. Brian Schoolar, Temple University
- Jane Strudwick, University of Connecticut
- Erin Daix, University of Delaware
- Maggie Saponaro, University of Maryland
- Laura Soito, University of Massachusetts at Amherst
- Lisa Fish, University of Miami
- Mark Robison, University of Notre Dame
- Holly Zerbe, University of Pennsylvania
- Tracey Olanyk, University of Pittsburgh
- Kristin Moo, University of Rochester
- Julie Glascock, Vanderbilt University
- (Vice Chair) Amauri Serrano, Yale University
Trevor A. Dawes
Trevor A. Dawes is the Vice Provost for Libraries and Museums and May Morris University Librarian at the University of Delaware. His twenty-plus years of work in the academic library sector has focused on providing a range of service-enhancing training and professional development opportunities that positively impact library-wide projects and programs. In addition to serving on NERL’s Board of Directors, he sits on the board of several library and library-related organizations and was past president of the Association of College and Research Libraries.
Gregory T. Eow, Ex-Officio
Greg Eow is the president of Center for Research Libraries, NERL’s parent organization since 2013. Before coming to CRL in 2019, Eow previously held positions at the MIT Libraries, Harvard Library, and Yale University Library. His career has focused broadly on scholarly communications and collections issues.
Sarah Forzetting
Sarah Forzetting is the Associate Director, Acquisitions & Collections Services for Stanford University Libraries. She has served as the Chair of the NERL Program Council Executive Committee since 2020 and on NERL license negotiation teams since 2018.
Dave Hansen, At-Large Board Member
Dave Hansen is a lawyer and librarian who is Duke University’s Lead for Copyright & Information Policy and Associate University Librarian for Research, Collections & Scholarly Communications. In that role he leads Duke Libraries’ core research and publishing services, including efforts to foster a more open, equitable and sustainable future for scholarly publishing.
Liz Mengel
Liz Mengel is the Associate Dean for Collections and Academic Services for Johns Hopkins University Sheridan Libraries. She has served as JHU’s Program Council representative since 2008 and on the NERL Program Council Executive Committee since 2021.
Barbara Rockenbach, Chair
Barbara Rockenbach is the Stephen F. Gates ’68 University Librarian at Yale University. She is deeply committed to public scholarship and her work has focused on the intersection of collections, technology, and pedagogy.
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.
Lindsay Cronk , University of Rochester, 7/1/2021 – 6/30/2024
Sarah Forzetting (Chair), Stanford University, 7/1/2020 – 3/31/2023
Liz Mengel, Johns Hopkins University, 7/1/2021 – 3/31/2023
Jessica Morales, University of Notre Dame, 7/1/2021 – 6/30/2024
Maridath Wilson, Boston University, 9/1/2021 – 3/31/2023
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
Lanette Garza, Program Manager
Lanette Garza joined NERL in February 2022. Lanette brings valuable experience in resource management, licensing, and assessment. She is passionate about foregrounding equity in her work and the work of research libraries. Previously she worked at Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas. She received her MA in Political Science from the University of Texas at San Antonio and her MLS from Texas Woman’s University.
Chavonne Cox, NERL Program Assistant
Chavonne Cox joined NERL in June of 2020. Chavonne brings a wealth of knowledge in both treasury and financial services and has a strong background in income auditing control. She received her BA in Business Administration from Devry University in Tinley Park, IL.
Erin Haddad-Null
Erin Haddad-Null joined NERL in June 2021. She has a PhD in English from the University of Connecticut and is currently completing her MLIS at Dominican University. Erin’s work experience is focused in the nonprofit sector and higher education.
Interested in becoming an affiliate member of NERL?
For any questions concerning becoming an affiliate NERL institution, please contact the NERL office.