Lindsay Cronk named Tulane University’s new Dean of Libraries

Lindsay Cronk, a distinguished leader, innovator and visionary who has worked on both the corporate and the academic sides of librarianship, has accepted the appointment as the new dean of Tulane University Libraries, effective August 1, 2023.

An internationally recognized expert in scholarly communication strategies, Cronk’s library leadership has delivered impactful and highly valued services for researchers across the globe. Her colleagues applaud her ability to operationalize a vision with her signature alchemy of optimism, creativity and pragmatism.

Cronk comes to Tulane from the University of Rochester, where she worked for the past six years, including the last two as the assistant dean for scholarly resources and curation. She also held the positions of director for collection strategies and head of collection strategies.

While at Rochester, Cronk oversaw seven departments, including digital initiatives, scholarly communication, metadata and rare books, special collections and preservation. She successfully implemented a variety of campus-wide initiatives and community partnerships, including establishing the libraries as the licensing clearinghouse of the university, initiating the campus affordability Access to Course Textbooks Commitment, co-authoring the university’s open access and copyright policies and supporting multiple web and system migrations. 

Cronk established the Open Educational Resource Grant Program, a course material program for instructors and students, and sponsored library support for the Rochester Education Justice Initiative prison education program.

Before joining Rochester, Cronk was the coordinator of online resources and collections at the University of Houston and worked for LYRASIS, a non-profit membership organization serving and supporting libraries, archives, museums and cultural heritage companies worldwide. 

Cronk has received numerous honors and citations, including being named a Library Journal Mover & Shaker in 2017. She served as the start-up president of the American Library Association’s (ALA) newest division, Core: Leadership, Infrastructure, Futures, and used her winning campaign slogan, “Libraries are radical, and so are you!” to launch a highly successful marketing and fundraising campaign to support library workers during the pandemic. She is the creator and co-founder of PeMento: Peer Mentoring for Midcareer Library Workers, a cohort-based reflective practice framework with hundreds of alumni worldwide.

Cronk advised on collection strategies for 30+ of the most prestigious research institutions in the U.S. as a member NorthEast Research Libraries (NERL) Program Council Executive Committee. She co-chaired the negotiation of the most recent NERL/Elsevier deal, opening 76k+ articles to readers and researchers across the globe with the introduction of the groundbreaking retroactive open access “Backflip” model. In that capacity, Cronk co-authored the Statement Demanding a Better Deal and Preferred Deal Elements. She serves on the editorial board of The Serials Librarian and writes a recurring column called Resourcefully. 

A native of Valparaiso, Indiana, Cronk received her bachelor’s degree in international relations and studio art from Agnes Scott College in 2006 and a Master’s in library and information science, technology track from Valdosta State University in 2012. She earned her Education Specialist degree in instructional technology from Georgia Southern University in 2016.