We are pleased to announce the publication of Networking Networks: A Festschrift in Honor of Clifford Lynch, guest edited by CNI Associate Executive Director Emerita Joan K. Lippincott. This special issue, a supplement to portal: Libraries and the Academy 25, no. 3 (July 2025), is now openly available through Project Muse: https://muse.jhu.edu/issue/55108. portal is published by the Journals Division of Johns Hopkins University Press.
In the summer of 2024, Clifford Lynch announced his retirement as executive director of CNI after 28 years of visionary leadership. To honor and document his legacy, CNI quietly launched this Festschrift project, inviting many of Cliff’s closest colleagues and collaborators to contribute reflections on his profound impact on digital scholarship, libraries, and the information landscape.
The final CNI membership meeting of Cliff’s tenure, held April 7–8, 2025, in Milwaukee, was to include a surprise presentation of the Festschrift’s table of contents. Though Cliff’s health prevented him from attending in person, he participated virtually and heard readings of excerpts from each contribution. Clifford Lynch passed away shortly after, on April 10, 2025. Authors completed their essays before his passing, and the original text remains unchanged.
Contributors and their articles:
- Andrew K. Pace and John O’Brien — Foreword
- Joan K. Lippincott — Introduction: The Many Facets of Clifford Lynch
- Donald J. Waters — CNI as an Idea Factory: An Appreciation of Clifford Lynch
- Dan Cohen — When Information Is Networked
- Kevin M. Guthrie and Roger C. Schonfeld — Clifford Lynch: “Conducting” the Infrastructure of Scholarship
- Christine L. Borgman — Libraries, Digital Libraries, and Data: Forty Years, Four Challenges
- Michael K. Buckland — Clifford Lynch at Berkeley
- Marjory S. Blumenthal — A Farsighted Integrator
- Judy Ruttenberg — Reflections on Research Library Advocacy: Lessons Learned through Collaboration with Cliff Lynch
- Herbert Van de Sompel and Michael L. Nelson — The Invisible Influencer in Information Infrastructure
- Ken Klingenstein — An Interview That Ran Long
- Howard Besser — Stewardship of Digital Images
- Victoria Reich and David S. H. Rosenthal — Lots of Cliff Keeps Stuff Safe
- Diane Goldenberg-Hart — Afterword
“It is rare in higher education and technology circles to establish a legacy that is felt by your organization, by your profession, by numerous associations and societies, and by hundreds if not thousands of colleagues across the globe. It is even rarer to build such a legacy without a single trace of the hubris or caustic personality that so often accompanies genius. Cliff’s humility, gentle but persistent persuasion, and remarkable good nature are the key elements of his indelible mark.”
We are deeply grateful to all who made this tribute possible. Networking Networks documents an extraordinary legacy and will stand as a vital resource for future scholars of networking, digital preservation, and research libraries, and the work of the Coalition for Networked Information.
Diane Goldenberg-Hart
Acting Executive Director, Coalition for Networked Information
Joan K. Lippincott
Associate Executive Director Emerita, Coalition for Networked Information
Update, July 8, 2025: This message has been updated to indicate that portal is published by the Journals Division of the Johns Hopkins University Press. It has also been updated to reflect the affiliation of the signatories.
