Caroline Fuchs ’04MLS serves as the University Librarian, Dean of Libraries, and Professor in the St. John’s University Libraries. She is a passionate advocate for providing open and inclusive access to information resources that empower student researchers to engage in the kind of scholarship that allows them to question what they know in order to create new knowledge that will be transformative in nature.
As University Librarian and Dean of Libraries, with her background and extensive teaching experience in person and online at both the undergraduate and graduate levels, she has a deep understanding of current trends in academic librarianship, as well as emerging pedagogical practices in information literacy instruction in higher education. This expertise enables her to guide the University Libraries along a path that ensures the academic needs of St. John’s students are met as they face an ever-evolving “open” information ecosystem.
Professor Fuchs joined the University Libraries in 2008 as Assistant Professor and Outreach Librarian. She was promoted to Associate Professor in 2011, and transitioned to the role of Learning Design Librarian in 2016, acting as the instructional designer for the libraries, as well as becoming the embedded librarian in the Office of Online Learning and Services. In 2018, she was appointed as the Associate Dean of the University Libraries, where she became a member of the libraries’ leadership team.
Committed to the mission of the University, Professor Fuchs is a Senior Fellow at the Vincentian Center for Church and Society, a Center for Teaching and Learning Teaching and Technology Fellow, and a Writing across the Curriculum Fellow. She is dedicated to advancing antiracism as well as equitable and inclusive practices within the libraries.
An active member of the national library community, she has held numerous leadership positions in library associations, including Director-at-Large for the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL)’s Board of Directors; Chair of the ACRL’s Chapters Council; member of the Executive Board of ACRL/NY, serving as Vice President/President/Past President from 2011 through 2014; the American Library Association (ALA)’s Reference and User Services (RUSA)’s Reference Service Section Executive Board member and representative to the RUSA Access to Information Committee; and Cochair of the ALA’s American Federation of Labor-Congress of Industrial Organizations Joint Committee on Library Services to Labor Groups. She serves on several committees for ALA Core. In 2021, she was elected to the Catholic Research Resources Alliance’s Board of Directors as a Director-at-Large, and is currently a member of the executive committee.
In addition to an M.L.S. from St. John’s University, she holds an M.A. in English and an M.A. in history. She writes and presents on topics relating to librarianship, as well as student learning and teaching with graphic novels.