Elizabeth Yakel appointed interim UMSI dean

Elizabeth Yakel will serve as interim dean of the University of Michigan School of Information.

Yakel is a two-time aluma of the school. She has been on the school's faculty since 2000 and has been senior associate dean for academic affairs since 2015. University of Michigan Provost Laurie McCauley announced the new appointment today; it will be reported to the Board of Regents at the September meeting. The appointment is effective Aug. 15, 2022, until a permanent dean is appointed. 

“I am pleased that Professor Yakel has agreed to serve as interim dean of the School of Information,” says Provost McCauley. “She is a distinguished archivist, scholar, and educator with years of experience as a faculty member, administrator, and researcher.” 

Yakel is known for work advancing archival practice, the use of primary sources in archives education, studies of data reuse practices, and digital curation. She is a member of the School of Information governing faculty and has been active in the instructional program, including teaching and mentoring master’s and doctoral students.

“I am honored to serve as interim dean of the School of Information during what I anticipate will be a busy and exciting time,” says Yakel. “I look forward to the opportunity to continue to serve the needs of students, faculty and staff in this new role and to maintain the school’s excellence in teaching, research and engagement.”

Yakel succeeds outgoing dean Thomas A. Finholt, who will begin his term as the University of Michigan’s vice provost for academic and budgetary affairs on August 15. 

"I am excited about the Provost's selection of Beth Yakel as the interim dean for the School of Information,” says Finholt. “Beth is superbly prepared to take on this important duty, both as a function of her distinguished service across an array of leadership roles at UMSI -- and because she has two degrees from the School of Information. I have no doubt that UMSI will continue to thrive and succeed under Beth's guidance."

Provost McCauley says the UMSI community confirmed the tremendous respect the community has for Yakel. “She has a long and distinguished record of service to the University of Michigan and within academic affairs. I am confident that the School of Information will maintain its momentum during this interim period under her leadership.”

Elizabeth Yakel’s background and accolades

Elizabeth Yakel completed her undergraduate studies at Brown University in 1980. She attended the University of Michigan in 1982 where she received her Master of Arts in library science from the School of Information and Library Studies. In 1997, she earned a PhD from the school, newly renamed the University of Michigan School of Information. Her dissertation, “Recordkeeping in Radiology: The Relationships Between Activities and Records in Radiological Processes,” received the 1997 Eugene Garfield Doctoral Dissertation Award from Association of Library and Information Science Educators.

Yakel joined the University of Pittsburgh as an assistant professor in the School of Information Sciences from 1997 to 2000. She then returned to the University of Michigan School of Information in July of 2000 as an assistant professor. She was promoted to associate professor, with tenure, in 2005, and to professor in 2011.

Yakel became the associate dean for research and faculty affairs in 2014 and was appointed as senior associate dean for academic affairs in 2015. In 2021, she was appointed as the C. Olivia Frost Collegiate Professor of Information.

Yakel has successfully published numerous peer-reviewed articles and she currently edits the leading journal in her field, Archival Science. Her work includes more than 130 writings, cited over 2,600 times. In 2016, Yakel and Doris Malkmus co-authored a module titled “Contextualizing Archival Literacy” for Teaching with Primary Sources, a volume of the Society of American Archivists’ “Trends in Archives Practice” series. 

Yakel’s research interests include digital archives and curation, specifically data reuse; teaching with primary sources; and the development of standardized metrics to enhance repository processes and the user experience. She has developed five graduate level courses at the University of Michigan, including the “Economics of Sustainable Digital Information” and “Access Systems for Archival Materials.” 

Yakel is currently a co-principal investigator on two research projects. The first, “Measuring and Improving the Efficacy of Curation Activities in Data Archives,” is funded by the Institute for Museum and Library Services and investigates how curatorial actions impact the reuse of digital collection. The second, funded by the National Science Foundation, investigates “Developing Evidence-based Data Sharing and Archiving Policies.”

Yakel’s many accolades and accomplishments include a Regents’ Fellowship in the School of Information at the University of Michigan from 1992 to 1995, a Research Fellowship for the Study of Modern Archives, Bentley Library, University of Michigan in 1994, and election as a Society of American Archivists Fellow in 1999. She was selected for the Academic Leadership Program Fellow in 2008-2009, and in 2012 was awarded the Michael D. Cohen Outstanding Service Award at the School of Information. 

For her research, she received the 2013 International Digital Curation Conference Best Research Paper Award for “Trust in Digital Repositories” with Ixchel Faniel, Adam Kriesberg, and Ayoung Yoon, and the Society of American Archivists Fellows’ Ernst Posner Award for the best paper in American Archivist (with Magia Krause) in 2008. In 2020, she received the Society of American Archivists Council Exemplary Service Award for the Archival Metrics Research Project, a collection of standardized user-based evaluation tools and other performance measures for archives.