The University of Nebraska–Lincoln (UNL) has named Elizabeth “Liz” Lorang interim dean of the University Libraries, effective May 2, 2023, pending approval by the Board of Regents.
Lorang has served as associate dean of UNL University Libraries since 2018. In that role, she works towards the broad sharing of research data and the advancement of open scholarship. She joined the libraries in 2013 as research assistant professor and digital projects librarian, and in 2016 was appointed associate professor and humanities librarian following a national search.
Across her teaching and librarianship, Lorang seeks to empower individuals to create new meaning, new opportunity, and new futures by drawing on and building from rich and diverse information systems. She is an inaugural member of the National Agricultural Producers Data Cooperative; co-leader of the task force charged with developing a comprehensive research data strategy for UNL; a fellow in the Center for Digital Research in the Humanities; a fellow in the Center for Great Plains Studies; co-founder and co-director of the Aida digital libraries research lab; and co-founder and co-director of the Genoa Indian School Digital Reconciliation Project.
Lorang holds a bachelor of science in English from Towson University, a master of arts in information science and learning technology from the University of Missouri, and a doctorate in English from UNL.
In the Association of Research Libraries (ARL), Lorang serves on the Scholars and Scholarship Committee (2021–2023) and is an alumna of the ARL Leadership Fellows Program (2021–2022).
At UNL, Lorang will serve as interim dean while the university conducts a search for a successor to Claire Stewart, who has led the UNL Libraries since 2019. Stewart is stepping down to become the next Juanita J. and Robert E. Simpson Dean of Libraries and University Librarian Designate at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.
For more information about Lorang and this appointment, see the University of Nebraska–Lincoln news release “Lorang Named Interim Dean of University Libraries.”
