On March 15, Charlotte Nunes, the interim dean of libraries, was given the dean of libraries job. Nunes, who has served as the interim dean since last year, was selected to continue her role after a nationwide search.
Before joining Lafayette in 2016 as the director of Digital Scholarship Services (DSS), Nunes earned her Ph.D. at the University of Texas at Austin. There, Nunes gained archival experience at institutions such as the Rapoport Center for Human Rights & Justice. During Nunes’ postdoctoral fellowship in academic libraries at Southwestern University, she led efforts with students to surface and center archives regarding the experiences of the Latinx community at Southwestern and the surrounding community. These experiences are reflected in the work Nunes has done here at Lafayette.
“That long experience with research and teaching gives me deep, nuanced insight into the needs of students and faculty,” Nunes wrote in an email. “That serves me well in the role of Dean.”
As the director of DSS, she used the resources Lafayette provided such as digital scholarship, digital archives and open library technologies, all areas she is passionate about, to build award-winning archives. Similar to her work at Southwestern, this was achieved with both students and the surrounding community.
One of the projects Nunes worked on was the Queer Archives Project which compiled interviews with LGBTQ+ alumni, faculty and staff about their experiences at Lafayette. She also partnered with organizations and community leaders to build the Lehigh Valley Engaged Humanities Consortium Digital Archive.
“Something I’m particularly proud of is that both of these projects have provided fabulous opportunities for Lafayette students over the years to build skills and experience working with archives and library technologies in community-led collection-building,” Nunes wrote.
Nunes was offered the position of interim dean of libraries in Sept. 2022 and “was excited for the opportunity to expand the scope of my work and address library challenges at a greater scale” at the time.
Now as the dean of libraries, Nunes wishes to expand undergraduate opportunities in the library. Lafayette libraries offer opportunities for students such as the Open Education Fellowship and the Digital Humanities Summer Scholars Program, but Nunes would like to see more. In particular, Nunes wants to get permanent funding to build archives of student life.
“I would love to see us build on this to distinguish ourselves nationally as the leading small liberal arts college library in distinctive undergraduate opportunities,” Nunes wrote. “I would like to grow a well-coordinated variety of structured, supported learning opportunities for students to professionalize in libraries, learn skills in data and digital scholarship, conceptualize and mount exhibits, and lead collection-building efforts.”
