Reinvest in Duke Libraries

Share your feedback about library leadership:

Provost Gallimore has announced the regular review of Joseph Salem, Rita DiGiallonardo Holloway University Librarian and Vice Provost for Library Affairs.  

Duke affiliates can share your observations about Vice Provost Salem’s leadership and your suggestions for the future of DUL by completing the online survey. Please include enough context about your interactions with Vice Provost Salem, his team, and the areas under his purview to help the committee understand your comments fully.

According to the review committee, comments will be treated confidentially and shared only with members of the review committee; the committee's report to Provost Gallimore will include an aggregate summary of the feedback received.

Deadline: October 30, 2026. 

Read More

Read about the impact of budget and staffing cuts on Duke Libraries and the campus community:

Duke cut librarians. It never told the faculty they worked with

Duke Chronicle, September 2, 2025

Thirty-three of the more than 200 full time library staff members accepted voluntary severance packages, prompting their departure from Duke. Their absences leave the future of a key aspect of academic support and research at the University uncertain. 

Library Service Changes: What Duke Faculty Need to Know

Duke University Libraries blog post with text from an email sent by the Provost’s Office to all Duke University faculty on August 15, 2025. 

The Strange Case of Duke’s Still Living Department of Slavic and Eurasian Studies 

IndyWeek, August 21, 2025

‘Impossible not to feel the loss’: Duke Libraries address cost-cutting process, faculty governance

September 28, 2025

At Thursday’s Academic Council meeting*, Joseph Salem, vice provost for library affairs, defended the cost-cutting process, which included voluntary separation incentives, cuts to print collections and the closure of the Marine Lab Library. 

*Link to minutes of the 9/25/25 Academic Council meeting with Joseph Salem.

Faculty mobilize to bring back their subject librarians after budget cuts

October 16, 2025

Through petitions and committees, faculty members have urged Duke to reinstate their subject librarians after a budget cut of $4 million across Duke University Libraries (DUL) saw the termination of 40 staff positions.

President Price sees financial, tech pressures as chance to rethink humanities and libraries

February 26, 2026

Price said that there is a "nice opportunity" to "rethink" what a liberal arts education should look like. Notably, Price did not address the sweeping cuts made to Duke University Libraries over the summer, which resulted in 40 staff members being let go and $4 million trimmed from its yearly budget.