Emily Morton-Owens

Emily Morton-Owens is the Associate Vice Provost for Technology and Digital Initiatives at the Penn Libraries. She oversees a team of 65 staff members, providing leadership and direction for both traditional and innovative digital services, systems, and initiatives. Areas under her purview include: digital development and infrastructure to support the digital library; desktop support and client services; educational technology and learning management, including management of Canvas, the University-wide courseware platform; research data and digital scholarship; the Schoenberg Center for Electronic Text and Image; and cultural heritage technologies and digital asset management.
 
Morton-Owens was previously Assistant University Librarian for Digital Library Development & Systems and Acting Associate University Librarian for IT at the Penn Libraries and was a core contributor to the Penn Libraries Strategic Plan 2020-2025. Her extensive professional experience in both information technology and library management beyond Penn includes positions as the Applications and Systems Manager for the Seattle Public Library and as an Assistant Curator for the New York University Health Sciences Library. She previously taught Digital Library Technologies for Drexel’s College of Computing and Informatics.

Morton-Owens's vision and approach has been recognized nationally. She served in 2019-20 as President of the Library Information Technology Association (LITA) and in 2020-21 as a member of the Board of Directors of the American Library Association’s Core division. She previously sat on the editorial board of the journal Information Technology and Libraries, the book publishing panel of the Medical Library Association, the LITA Research & Assessment Committee, and the LITA Top Tech Trends Committee. She has authored or co-authored and presented numerous peer-reviewed articles and presentations on topics ranging from de-identifying patron data to building open repositories for cultural heritage sources and building mobile services for a medical library.

She holds an MS in Computer Science from the Courant Institute of New York University and an MS in Library and Information Science from Drexel University. Her BA is from Yale University, where she worked at several campus libraries.