Dr. Joan K. Lippincott, CNI’s long-time associate executive director, has informed me that she will be retiring effective January 1, 2020. It’s impossible for me to readily summarize her achievements and contributions in over 30 years of dedicated service to the library community. Joan joined CNI in the fall of 1990, soon after the organization's inception under the leadership of founding director Paul Evan Peters, and she has played a critical role in shaping CNI's trajectory since the earliest days. When I joined CNI as director in 1997, we immediately formed what I believe was an extraordinarily effective leadership team, and our partnership over the past two decades has been one of the great pleasures and most rewarding experiences of my career.

In addition to providing brilliant stewardship of CNI's operations, during her time at CNI, Joan has provided critical intellectual leadership for programs in teaching and learning, learning spaces, digital scholarship, and assessment. The author of countless articles, chapters, and reports, Joan was one of the founders of the Designing Libraries for the 21st Century conference, which is now going into its eight year. She is valued as an admired colleague, compassionate mentor, and trusted friend by so many throughout the CNI community and beyond.

I personally want to thank Joan for her contributions to CNI and to the community; we have all benefited – I most of all – from her insights, leadership and wise counsel. We will recognize her years of service during the CNI Fall 2019 Membership Meeting in Washington, DC, this December. But for now, please join me in thanking Joan, celebrating her accomplishments and legacy, and in wishing her all the best in retirement as she transitions to become associate director emerita. I expect that she will continue to be engaged in some of our ongoing programmatic work at CNI; more on this in future.

Diane Goldenberg-Hart, who currently serves as CNI's communications coordinator, has added the role of assistant director designate to her portfolio, and will assume operational responsibilities as CNI's assistant executive director at the start of 2020. Diane is well known to the CNI community; she’s been part of our organization for over 15 years, coming to us after various roles in the Yale University Libraries. Please join me in welcoming Diane to her new role at CNI.

I anticipate additional staffing changes to take place over the coming months, particularly in CNI's focus areas involving teaching and learning and digital scholarship; details about these will be shared with the community as they develop.


Clifford Lynch
Director, CNI