Karen Estlund has been appointed as the Association of Research Libraries (ARL) member representative to the Coalition for Networked Information (CNI) Steering Committee for the 2025–2028 term.
Karen Estlund has been serving as the dean of libraries at Colorado State University (CSU) since 2019. Karen started working in academic libraries as an undergraduate work-study student and eventually became an expert in digital library and technology advancements. Previously, Karen worked at large public university research libraries at Penn State, the University of Oregon, and The University of Utah.
Karen is passionate about access to information, student success, and emergent technologies for communication and long-term access to knowledge. She has played a vital role in various governance positions for library open-source community projects and co-established a networking group for women IT leaders in libraries. Additionally, Karen was one of the founding editorial board members of Ada: a Journal of Gender, New Media, and Technology, an open access, open–peer review, multi-modal journal. Recently, Karen has been serving on national library efforts around AI through the Association of Research Libraries and Coalition for Networked Information, and she co-led the CSU System AI Task Force.
Two other ARL member representatives serve on the CNI Steering Committee: Karim Boughida, dean of University Libraries for Stony Brook University, serving 2024–2027, and Sarah Shreeves, the Alice Sheets Marriott Dean of Libraries for The University of Utah, serving 2023–2026. Representatives serve three-year terms; the CNI Steering Committee meets throughout the year to guide CNI programming and development.
CNI is a joint initiative of ARL and EDUCAUSE that promotes the use of information technology to advance scholarship and education. Over 200 institutions representing higher education, publishing, information technology, scholarly and professional organizations, foundations, and libraries and library organizations make up CNI’s members. Learn more at cni.org.
About the Association of Research Libraries
The Association of Research Libraries (ARL) is a nonprofit membership organization of research libraries and archives in major public and private universities, federal government agencies, and large public institutions in Canada and the US. ARL champions research libraries and archives, develops visionary leaders, and shapes policy for the equitable advancement of knowledge.
