The Center for Research Libraries (CRL) is pleased to announce the appointment of Samantha Abrams to the position of CRL Collections & Partnerships Coordinator. This new position plays a key role in the management and development of CRL’s collection programs and major collaborations providing widespread digital access to international resources for academic research and teaching.

Samantha Abrams is currently the Web Resources Collection Librarian based at Columbia University for the Ivy Plus Libraries Confederation. In this capacity, she directs the Confederation's Web Resources Collections Program—a collaborative collection development effort to build thematic collections of freely available, at-risk web content to support research. Since 2017, she has led the program from pilot status to a standing, robust born-digital collaborative collecting opportunity, featuring 27 public collections built by specialists from the Confederation’s thirteen libraries and beyond.

"On behalf of the CRL Collections & Services Policy Committee, I am so happy to have Samantha join us in this critical coordination role for CRL, where her skills at strategically shepherding people's attention and creativity - as well as their collaborative and operational engagements - will immediately yield fruit for all of us," notes CSPC Chair David Magier, Associate University Librarian for Scholarly Collections and Research Services at Princeton University Library. "As a member of the Ivy Plus Library Confederation's Collection Development Group, and of the steering committee for its Web Resources Collecting Program, it has been really inspiring for me to watch how Samantha's leadership and keen insights have built that program from the ground up."

Before Columbia, Abrams worked as the Associate Archive Manager at StoryCorps, where she managed the organization's digital and physical assets, coordinated the formation of Community Archives and other content-sharing partnerships with organizations across the country—notably, the National African American Museum of History and Culture and the National September 11 Memorial & Museum. She was the recipient of a 2016 Innovation Award from the National Digital Stewardship Alliance, established by the NDSA to recognize and encourage innovation in the field of digital preservation stewardship. She holds a Master's degree in Library and Information Studies from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and presently serves as an Associate Lecturer at the iSchool at Wisconsin-Madison.

Abrams brings a depth of talent, expertise, and collaborative focus to her new role as Collections & Partnerships Coordinator for CRL. The Coordinator will play a key role in providing support and facilitated leadership for CRL’s Global Resources Partnerships (Law & Government, Science & Technology, News) and other innovative partnerships like the Global Press Archive Alliance that expand access and facilitate the exchange and preservation of knowledge and source material. James Simon (CRL Director of Collections & Partnerships) notes, "Samantha brings a passion for the power of collaboration to effect change on a large scale, especially in the realm of digital curation and collection development. We're thrilled to bring her talents in digital stewardship and coalition building to bear on the growing programs and initiatives at CRL."

Abrams states: "I am thrilled to join the Center for Research Libraries, and delighted by the opportunity to work for an organization with such an important mission! As a professional with deep experience in sustaining and building collaborative partnerships and collections, I am eager to build upon CRL's work and look forward to exploring new areas of digital collecting and collaboration."

Abrams begins her role on April 26, 2021.