Lisa Macklin

Lisa A. Macklin is both a librarian and a lawyer who retired from Emory Libraries as the Associate Vice Provost and University Librarian in April 2026.  Previously, Lisa served as Associate Dean for Research, Engagement, and Scholarly Communications with responsibility for collection management, subject librarian teams, instruction and engagement, and scholarly communications.  Lisa was also the director of the Scholarly Communications Office, which launched in 2007.

Her interests include the application of copyright law to teaching, research and publishing; transformations in scholarship and publishing, including new models of scholarship in digital form; and the Open Access movement. She was elected to the Steering Committee for SPARC and the Board of Directors for University Information Policy Officers (UIPO).  Lisa also served as PI on a grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to create the Model Publishing Contract for Digital Scholarship.

Advancing your Career as a Copyright Librarian

What do career paths look like for a librarian and copyright specialist? In this presentation, two experienced library administrators who both worked for many years as copyright librarians will share their advice and experience on topics such as available positions, the pros and cons of tenure versus non-tenure positions, how to leverage your copyright and analytical skills to advance your career, and how to negotiate salaries. This session is ideal for early career librarians or those who want to advance their careers into management and leadership.

In her 20 years at Emory University, Lisa Macklin served as the first director of offices related to copyright and scholarly communications, as Associate Dean of Research, Engagement, and Scholarly Communication, as Interim Dean and University Librarian, and finally as Associate Vice Provost and University Librarian. During her tenure, she has mentored and supervised many librarians.

Kevin Smith spent a decade as the director of copyright and scholarly communications at Duke University Libraries, followed by 6 years as the Dean of Libraries at the University of Kansas, and most recently as Director of the Libraries at Colby College. His broad experience at large comprehensive universities and small liberal arts colleges includes supervising both non-tenure track librarians and tenure-track library faculty.