John Borwick
Director, IT Services & Digital Strategies
University of Washington
Ray Frohlich
Director, Client Services and IT Operations, Library
Yale University
Dale Hendrickson
Senior Director, Library Information Technology
Yale University
Joanna DiPasquale
Director of Content & Digital Library Systems
Union College
Sarah Dorpinghaus
Director of Digital Strategies & Technology
University of Kentucky
Este Pope
Head of Digital Library Technologies Group
Dartmouth College
Getting Started with Library IT Governance: A Facilitated Cohort for Academic Libraries
Many academic libraries recognize they need information technology (IT) governance but don’t know where to start, and existing guidance tends to be descriptive rather than actionable. This session will outline steps to get started, including activities such as inventorying IT projects and IT applications, clarifying roles, identifying tool delivery gaps, and creating a culture of continuous IT improvement. The three presenters draw on University of Washington Libraries experience, Yale’s IT Guidance Process, and roughly fifteen months of cross-institutional survey research. In addition to an overview and attendee questions around implementing IT governance, the presenters will facilitate a structured cohort of up to ten interested libraries. This cohort will run from January through the Spring 2027 CNI Membership Meeting (April 5–6, 2027), where participants will be encouraged to share their experiences. The cohort is primarily for library IT leaders who have a commitment from their library’s senior leader. Over the cohort period, the three facilitators will share responsibility equally for regular check-ins, weekly or semimonthly based on cohort preference, combining structured guidance from the facilitators with peer learning across participating institutions. Cohort membership will be on a first-come basis once the endorsement requirement is met, and participation is open to any interested library regardless of size or current governance maturity. While concrete artifacts, such as a governance charter or maturity self-assessment, are encouraged, they are not required; the primary goal is sustained progress and shared learning. The cohort will conclude with a report-out and showcase session at the Spring 2027 Membership Meeting, where participating libraries share what they built, what they learned, and where they’re headed next.
Who Decides? IT Governance in Libraries from Liberal Arts Colleges to Research Universities
A fall 2025 survey of thirty-eight CNI member libraries found few institutions where both the library and central information technology (IT) govern technology with high maturity. Most are working somewhere short of that, and the path forward depends heavily on local context. This session opens with a brief overview of the survey and its two-axis model, which places each institution by the governance maturity of the library on one axis and central IT on the other. Three libraries at different positions on that model, facing different pressures, then answer the same three questions: Where does your institution sit? What decisions get made, and by whom? What would you do differently? Joanna DiPasquale (Union College) shows how the model applies at a small liberal arts college, where roles overlap and formal structures can be hard to justify. Este Pope (Dartmouth College) describes an emerging technology planning and rapid-review process built by the people closest to implementation, informed by her recently completed doctoral research. Sarah Dorpinghaus (University of Kentucky) describes governing library technology through a university-wide organizational restructuring, and what held up under that pressure. A short synthesis of common patterns and an open discussion close the session. Attendees will leave with a shared vocabulary for describing their own governance position, three concrete examples of libraries working through theirs, and a clearer sense of which next step fits their situation.
This talk will not be recorded.
