Claire DeMarco

Director of Information Discovery Services
Information and Technical Services

Claire DeMarco is the Director of Information Discovery Services. In this role, she oversees UX & Discovery and Information & Technical Services. She provides strategic leadership for the expansion of discovery and access through innovative approaches to digital library initiatives and technical services, grounded in user experience research, accessibility, and open knowledge. The teams under Claire’s direction include:

  • The User Research Center
  • Digital Collections Discovery Services
  • Metadata Management & Project Strategy
  • Metadata Creation
  • E-Resources and Serials
  • Acquisitions

These teams provide product ownership for Harvard Digital Collections, CURIOSity Collections, Colonial North America, and Library.Harvard as well as serving on cross-library groups that manage the library catalog, HOLLIS, our integrated-library system, and related services. Contact Claire for strategic planning on digital collections projects, UX research and accessibility review, metadata sharing, project management, and technical services.

Claire serves as the Vice Chair of ALA-CORE Technical Services Directors of Large Research Libraries Committee, Secretary of the LD4 Steering Group, and an active member of the IPLC Technical Services Group. She has presented at several national conferences for organizations including the Coalition for Networked Information, the Digital Library Federation, Electronic Resources & Libraries, and Designing for Digital. In 2020, she was the keynote speaker for QuasiCon at the University of Michigan School of Information. Her recent publications include:

  • DeMarco, Claire, "Building an Innovative Internship Program: The Recipe for Greatness" in Learning in Action: Designing Successful Graduate Student Work Experiences in Academic Libraries, edited by Arianne Hartsell-Gundy, Kim Duckett, and Sarah Morris, Association of College & Research Libraries, 2022. 
  • Wones, Suzanne & Claire DeMarco, "Taking the Wheel in Choppy Waters: Leading Transformational Change as an Interim Leader during a Crisis" in Interim Leadership in Libraries: Building Relationships, Making Decisions, and Moving On, edited by Jennifer E. Knievel and Leslie J. Reynolds, Association of College & Research Libraries, 2022. 
  • Khan, Huda, Claire DeMarco, Christine Fernsebner Eslao, Steven Folsom, Jason Kovari, Simeon Warner, Tim Worrall, and Astrid Usong. 2022. “Using Linked Data Sources to Enhance Catalog Discovery” KULA: Knowledge Creation, Dissemination, and Preservation Studies 6 (3):1-26. https://doi.org/10.18357/kula.229.

Claire joined Harvard in 2012 and worked in the Faculty Support Services and Research Services groups at Harvard Law School Library for 5 years. In 2017 she joined Harvard Library to implement the initiatives outlined in Harvard Library's first digital strategy. She led cross-functional teams focused on developing user-facing tools including Library.Harvard and Harvard Digital Collections and expanding the use of Library Cloud and IIIF at Harvard.

During previous periods of her career, Claire worked as a managing attorney in health care practice and as a research specialist in legislative and regulatory affairs at both state and Federal levels. She has also served as an adjunct faculty member at Northeastern University School of Law. She holds an A.B. from Mount Holyoke College, an M.S.L.I.S. from Drexel University, and a J.D. from Suffolk University Law School.