Kevin Smith became the Dean of Libraries at the University of Kansas in May 2016, after 10 years as Director of Copyright and Scholarly Communications at the Duke University Libraries. As both a librarian and a lawyer specializing in intellectual property issues, Smith's role at Duke was to advise faculty, staff, and students about the impact of copyright, licensing, and the changing nature of scholarly publishing on higher education. Prior to that, Smith was the director of the Pilgrim Library at Defiance College in Ohio, where he also taught constitutional law. His teaching experience is various, having taught courses in theology, law, and library science. Smith is the author of numerous articles on the impact of copyright law and the internet on scholarly research as well as libraries' role in the academy. He has been a highly regarded blogger on these issues for many years, and in 2013 published Owning and Using Scholarship: An IP Handbook for Teachers and Researchers with the Association of College and Research Libraries. His new book is titled "Coaching Copyright" by ALA Publishing released Spring 2020.

Kevin holds a B.A. from Hamilton College in Clinton, N.Y., an M.A. from Yale Divinity School, an M.L.S. from Kent State University, and a J.D. from Capital University. He did doctoral work in theology and literature at the University of Chicago. Smith has been admitted to the bar in Ohio and North Carolina.