Dawn E. Gross named BU’s Associate University Librarian for Planning & Operations
Boston University Libraries are excited to announce the appointment of Dawn E. Gross to the position of Associate University Librarian for Planning & Operations. Gross begins her appointment January 1, 2023.
Reporting to University Librarian ad interim Mark Newton, Gross will direct the library’s core administrative and operational programs, providing strategic leadership and oversight in the areas of financial and business services, staff development, assessment, project management, and library facilities. Gross will work collaboratively with library staff and campus partners to develop, resource, and implement new initiatives that meet and anticipate the needs of BU library users and support an inclusive library environment that enriches BU’s vibrant residential academic experience.
Gross brings a wealth of business, operations, library, and leadership experience to this position. In her current role as Interim Dean at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth’s Claire T. Carney Library, Gross serves as a member of the Chancellor’s management council and works collaboratively with vice chancellors and college deans to implement new services, policies, and workflows that support the research and curricular needs of the campus. Gross not only led her organization through the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic and the necessary changes to resources and services that followed, she also initiated and executed facilities improvements and capital projects and led her library’s pilot of a new digital scholarship hub that opened at UMass this fall.
“Dawn’s acumen for inclusive and comprehensive library service planning will add immeasurably to our commitment to connect BU’s students and disciplinary communities with spaces and specialists that unlock their potential,” says Newton. “Given Dawn’s extensive experience in library leadership, it is clear she will make an immediate impact for all visitors to our libraries, both in person and online. We couldn’t be more pleased to welcome her aboard.”
“Under Mark Newton’s leadership, the Boston University Libraries are actively reimagining the library’s role in supporting the scholarly enterprise,” says Gross. “I look forward to joining with BU Libraries colleagues who are deeply engaged in constructing a vibrant library of the future. Newly conceived approaches to library services, spaces, and specialists will not only support emerging trends in interdisciplinary scholarship but will, in fact, further this groundbreaking work by connecting researchers to library resources in, as yet, unmapped ways.”
Currently, Gross serves on the Boston Library Consortium’s board of directors, finance committee (chair), and heads of resource sharing committee (board liaison) as well as the treasurer of the BLC’s executive committee. Gross has also served on the Department of Higher Education’s Open Educational Resources Advisory Council.
Prior to her work at UMass Dartmouth, Gross served first as the Head Cataloger and later as the Assistant Head Librarian for New York University’s Institute for the Study of the Ancient World, where she oversaw the Institute’s initial cataloging effort and helped to design, implement, and manage its operations, public services, and digital projects. Before her career in libraries, Gross also worked for nearly 20 years managing retail bookstores.
Gross earned an undergraduate degree in fine arts from New York University and a master of library and information science degree from Long Island University.