UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Elizabeth Call, a nationally recognized leader in archival stewardship, inclusive collecting and community-centered engagement, has been named head of Penn State University Libraries’ Eberly Family Special Collections Library, effective Jan. 6, 2026.
The Eberly Family Special Collections Library advances scholarship, cultivates public engagement and stewards Penn State’s historical record through more than 200,000 printed volumes, more than 25 million archival records and manuscripts, and another million photographs, maps, prints and audio-visual items. It offers primary source materials for a diverse community of researchers, ranging from K-12 and Penn State students to scholars from around the world. It collects a variety of subject disciplines, a sampling of which includes Utopian literature, science fiction, labor organization and representation and Centre County history, and also is home to the Penn State University Archives.
“Liz has a strong record of student outreach and donor engagement, and we’re really looking forward to her leadership in our Special Collections Library and the University Archives,” Nathan Hall, University Libraries associate dean for distinctive collections and digital strategies, said.
Call has served in her current role as university archivist at Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) since August 2019. Among highlights of her tenure are the launch of a student-centered exhibition program and the establishment of an inclusive oral history initiative that reshaped how RIT documents its past. These efforts have resulted in hundreds of new recordings, partnerships with more than 40 campus events and organizations, and the creation of a student-led archival club. Under her leadership, RIT Archives has become a visible, collaborative hub for research, storytelling and community connection.
Prior to joining RIT, Call held positions of increasing responsibility at the University of Rochester, Columbia University’s Burke Library, Brooklyn Historical Society and Queens Public Library, where she strengthened access services, public programming and archival research support.
Call’s grant-funded work consistently advances equitable access to cultural heritage collections and the preservation of underrepresented histories. In 2025 she secured two highly competitive, two-year, six-figure grants for which she was the project director or co-director. Her grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities, Humanities Collections and Reference Resources, Preservation and Access, is for the project “Breaking (Sound) Barriers: Enhancing Description and Access to Deaf Heritage Collections.” The second grant, from the Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR), Digitizing Hidden Collections: Amplifying Unheard Voices, is for the project “Vital Signs: Uncovering Deaf Theater, Student Life and Culture from the National Technical Institute for the Deaf (NTID).” She also recently completed a three-year grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), Save America’s Treasures, for the Harry Bertoia “Golden Dandelions” Sculpture Restoration Project, for which she was principal investigator.
“I am honored to join Penn State at such a pivotal moment for cultural heritage stewardship and public storytelling. The Eberly Family Special Collections Library is not only a vital steward of the University’s history, but also a home to richly diverse collections spanning literature, labor history, visual culture, local and global histories, the arts and more. I look forward to working with this talented team and the entire Penn State University Libraries to deepen access, bring in new collaborations and voices, and activate the collections in ways that inspire creativity, scholarship and belonging across our campus, the Commonwealth and the wider world,” Call said.
Call holds graduate degrees in library and information science, public history and archives, and organizational leadership and innovation from Long Island University, New York University and Rochester Institute of Technology, respectively.