The Center for Research Libraries (CRL) is pleased to announce that Robert Van Rennes will join CRL’s growing licensing team as the new Licensing Librarian. Currently Associate Director of Library Initiatives at the Big Ten Academic Alliance (BTAA), Van Rennes comes to CRL with a wealth of experience in licensing.

Van Rennes brings years of experience overseeing licensing operations and supporting member libraries in collaboration and pursuit of sustainable content. Previously, Van Rennes spent several years at the University of Iowa Libraries as the Head of Acquisitions, negotiating agreements with terms on public performance rights, perpetual access, and text and data mining. Most recently, Van Rennes has negotiated and reviewed a growing number of open access agreements that made articles by BTAA authors open to the world and eliminated costly article processing charges.

“Robert is a skilled licensing professional, and I am particularly impressed by his continued passion and enthusiasm for contributing to the mission of member institutions and his commitment to ensuring the best licensing terms,” said Lanette Garza, Director of Licensing and Acquisitions. “Robert’s expertise and previous experience with open access agreements will be a great asset to the team as we work toward licensing an increased portfolio of open content and collections to support CRL member institutions’ research activities and goals.” 

As a key part of CRL’s directorate of licensing and acquisitions, Van Rennes will work with CRL stakeholders and participants in CRL’s NERL program to align licensing agreements with CRL policies and core values. The CRL community looks forward to working with Van Rennes to ensure that agreements include best in class terms for a variety of licensed content, including streaming media, open access, and language as it pertains to AI.

“I’m excited to be joining the CRL licensing team to help support their mission of building a more equitable and sustainable scholarly ecosystem,” said Van Rennes. “I look forward to applying my skills and experience to support and advance the research goals of the broader community.”

Van Rennes will begin his appointment on December 11. Please join us in welcoming Van Rennes to CRL. 

Center for Research Libraries (CRL) 
Based in Chicago, Illinois, the Center for Research Libraries is an enduring model for cooperative collection development and community building among the research library community. From its original founding in 1949 by ten member libraries in the Midwestern United States, today CRL represents an international consortium of university, college, and independent research libraries collectively building, stewarding, and sharing a wealth of resource materials from all world regions to support inspired research and teaching.