Provost Sarah Willie-LeBreton recently announced that Anne Houston will join the College as the next director of the Swarthmore College Libraries and College librarian, effective October 3.  

Houston is an established leader in academic librarianship with 25 years of higher education experience. She comes to Swarthmore from Lafayette College, where she has served as dean of libraries since 2017, overseeing all aspects of library operations including collections, strategic planning, digital scholarship, fundraising, special collections and archives. Under her leadership, Lafayette extended its digital humanities programs for faculty and students, created a Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) team, and successfully implemented an affordable course materials initiative.

Prior to Lafayette, Houston spent three years at Smith College Libraries, where she directed teaching, learning, and research services and made important contributions to a major library renovation project. As the director of humanities and social sciences services at the University of Virginia Libraries, she played a key advocacy role in an overall renovation of their Alderman Library, and led a number of scholarly communications initiatives. Houston has also held leadership positions at Tulane University Libraries and Loyola University Chicago Libraries. 

In addition to her experience with these renowned institutions, she brings a strong commitment to serving the profession. She has held elected and appointed leadership roles with the American Library Association, the Oberlin Group of Libraries at liberal arts colleges, and the Five College Consortium, among others. She is currently the chair of the oversight committee for Lever Press, an open access, digital monograph press. She also serves on the Board of Governors of the HathiTrust Digital Library. Houston holds a B.A. in history from the University of Virginia, an M.A. in English literature from Duquesne University, and a Master of Library and Information Sciences from the University of Michigan.