Clifford Alan Lynch (December 31, 1954 – April 10, 2025) was an American computer scientist and director of the

Coalition for Networked Information The Coalition for Networked Information (CNI) is an organization whose mission is to promote networked information technology as a way to further the advancement of intellectual collaboration and productivity. Overview The Coalition for Networke ...

(CNI) from 1997 to his death. He was also an adjunct professor at the

UC Berkeley School of Information The University of California, Berkeley School of Information (sometimes abbreviated as Berkeley I School) is a graduate school at the University of California, Berkeley, a public university in Berkeley, California. The school was established in 1 ...

Education

Clifford Alan Lynch was born on December 31, 1954. He held a B.A in mathematics and computer science from Columbia College, an M.S. in computer science from the

Columbia University School of Engineering The Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science (also known as SEAS or Columbia Engineering; historically Columbia School of Mines) is the engineering and applied science school of Columbia University, a private research university i ...

, and a Ph.D. in computer science (1987) from the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after t ...

Career and awards

Prior to joining CNI, Lynch spent eighteen years at the

University of California The University of California (UC) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university, research university system in the U.S. state of California. Headquartered in Oakland, California, Oakland, the system is co ...

Office of the President, the last ten as Director of Library Automation. He was both a past president and recipient of the 2008

Award of Merit The Award of Merit, or AM, is a mark of quality awarded to plants by the British Royal Horticultural Society (RHS). The award was instituted in 1888, and given on the recommendation of Plant Committees to plants deemed "of great merit for exhibitio ...

of the American Society for Information Science and Technology (

ASIS&T The Association for Information Science and Technology (ASIS&T) is a Nonprofit organization, nonprofit membership organization for information professionals that sponsors an Academic conference, annual conference as well as several Periodical lit ...

), and a fellow of the

American Association for the Advancement of Science The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is a United States–based international nonprofit with the stated mission of promoting cooperation among scientists, defending scientific freedom, encouraging scientific responsib ...

and the

National Information Standards Organization The National Information Standards Organization (NISO; ) is a United States non-profit standards organization that develops, maintains and publishes technical standards related to publishing, bibliographic and library applications. It was found ...

. Lynch lectured extensively on issues pertaining to

digital libraries A digital library (also called an online library, an internet library, a digital repository, a library without walls, or a digital collection) is an online database of digital resources that can include text, still images, audio, video, digital ...

, information policy, and emerging interoperability standards. In 2011, Lynch was appointed co-chair of the

National Academies A national academy is an organizational body, usually operating with state financial support and approval, that co-ordinates scholarly research activities and standards for academic disciplines, and serves as a public policy advisors, research ins ...

Board on Research Data and Information (BRDI). He received the

American Library Association The American Library Association (ALA) is a nonprofit organization based in the United States that promotes libraries and library education internationally. It is the oldest and largest library association in the world. History 19th century ...

's Joseph W. Lippincott Award,

EDUCAUSE Educause is a nonprofit association in the United States whose mission is "to advance higher education through the use of information technology". Membership is open to institutions of higher education, corporations serving the higher education in ...

's Leadership Award in Public Policy and Practice, and the

American Society for Engineering Education American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, ...

Engineering Library Division's Homer Bernhardt Distinguished Service Award. He was elected as an

ACM Fellow ACM Fellowship is an award and fellowship that recognises outstanding members of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM). The title of ACM Fellow A fellow is a title and form of address for distinguished, learned, or skilled individuals ...

in 2017. In 2024, Lynch announced his retirement with an effective date of June 2025. Lynch died on April 10, 2025. Prior to his death, CNI announced a

festschrift In academia, a ''Festschrift'' (; plural, ''Festschriften'' ) is a book honoring a respected person, especially an academic, and presented during their lifetime. It generally takes the form of an edited volume, containing contributions from the h ...

honoring his career. It is scheduled to be published in July 2025, but at least two contributions have already been published.

Selected publications

*Clifford Lynch
Stewardship in the "Age of Algorithms"
''

First Monday ''First Monday'' is an American legal drama television series which aired on CBS during the midseason replacement from January 15 to May 3, 2002. The series centered on the U.S. Supreme Court. Like another 2002 series, '' The Court'', it was i ...

,'' Volume 22, Number 12 (December 4, 2017). *Clifford A. Lynch, "Big data: How do your data grow?" ''

Nature Nature is an inherent character or constitution, particularly of the Ecosphere (planetary), ecosphere or the universe as a whole. In this general sense nature refers to the Scientific law, laws, elements and phenomenon, phenomena of the physic ...

'', vol. 455, no. 7209 (September 3, 2008). *Clifford A. Lynch, "Digital Libraries, Learning Communities, and Open Education," ''Opening Up Education: The Collective Advancement of Education through Open Technology, Open Content, and Open Knowledge'', Toru Iiyoshi, M. S. Vijay Kumar (Eds.), (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2008). *Clifford A. Lynch, "Imagining a University Press System to Support Scholarship in the Digital Age." ''Journal of Electronic Publishing.'' November 2012. *Clifford A. Lynch and Joan K. Lippincott, "Institutional Repository Deployment in the United States as of Early 2005," ''

D-Lib Magazine ''D-Lib Magazine'' was an online magazine dedicated to digital library research and development. Past issues are available free of charge. The publication was financially supported by contributions from the D-Lib Alliance. Prior to April 2006, th ...

'', 11:9 (September 2005). *Clifford A. Lynch, "The Impact of Digital Scholarship on Research Libraries," The ''

Journal of Library Administration The ''Journal of Library Administration'' is a peer-reviewed academic journal that covers library management. Established in 1980, the journal is published 8 times a year by Routledge. The editor-in-chief is Gary M. Pitkin, from the University of N ...

'' 49:3 (April 2009), pp. 227–244. *Clifford A. Lynch, "Open Computation: Beyond Human-Reader-Centric Views of Scholarly Literatures," ''Open Access: Key Strategic, Technical and Economic Aspects'', Neil Jacobs (Ed.), (Oxford: Chandos Publishing, 2006), 185–193. *Clifford A. Lynch, "Searching the Internet," ''

Scientific American ''Scientific American'', informally abbreviated ''SciAm'' or sometimes ''SA'', is an American popular science magazine. Many scientists, including Albert Einstein and Nikola Tesla, have contributed articles to it, with more than 150 Nobel Pri ...

'' 276:3 (March 1997), pp. 52–56.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lynch, Clifford 1954 births 2025 deaths 2017 fellows of the Association for Computing Machinery American computer scientists American nonprofit executives Scholarly communication Columbia College (New York) alumni Columbia School of Engineering and Applied Science alumni University of California, Berkeley alumni University of California, Berkeley School of Information faculty University of California staff