By Lynne Raughley

A new 12-member board of governors will lead HathiTrust, a partnership of major research institutions and libraries working to ensure cultural records are preserved and widely accessible in the digital age.  There are more than 60 partners worldwide in HathiTrust, including the University of Michigan.

“The caliber of all the nominees was outstanding, and it speaks well for the future of HathiTrust to have this group of wonderfully qualified, enthusiastic leaders installed as our new board,” said John Wilkin, executive director of HathiTrust.

The newly named board replaces the HaithiTrust Executive Committee, established by the founding members in 2008. The new board oversees HathiTrust’s 10-million volume digital preservation repository, research center, and other initiatives.  The decision to create the board was made during the HathiTrust Constitutional Convention in October.

Board Members elected at-large include:

> Five year terms – Betsy Wilson (University of Washington), Robert Wolven (Columbia University)

> Four year terms – Richard Clement (Utah State University); and, Patricia Steele (University of Maryland)

> Three year terms – Carol Mandel (New York University): and, Sarah Michalak (University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill)

The six other members, who were appointed by the founding institutions, will serve a five-year term. They include: Paul Courant (University of Michigan), Carol Diedrichs (Ohio State University), Laine Farley (California Digital Library), Wendy Lougee (University of Minnesota), Brian Schottlaender (UC San Diego), and, Bradley Wheeler (Indiana University).

The board’s initial priorities will be to implement the proposals passed during the constitutional convention, including:

• Establishment of a distributed archive of print monographs corresponding to the digital copies held in HathiTrust;
• Creation of an approval process for proposed new initiatives, a fee-for-service model for content deposit, and a mechanism for allowing non-partners to contribute content to the repository;
• Coordination of efforts to expand access to digitized U.S. federal government documents.

The board officially begins work on April 16, 2012.  HathiTrust membership is open to institutions worldwide.

For more information, please visit www.HathiTrust.org