Kurt De Belder

Kurt De Belder is University Librarian at Leiden University, Director of Leiden University Libraries and of Leiden University Press. Kurt worked at the university libraries of the University of Amsterdam, New York University, the University of California at Berkeley and Stanford University.

Kurt serves on the Board of Directors of the Council on Library and Information Resources (Washington DC); the Board of Directors of OAPEN – Open Access Publishing in European Networks; the Supervisory Board of Digital Heritage Netherlands; the Advisory Board of the Universitäts- und Stadtbibliothek Köln, Universität zu Köln.

Furthermore, he is a member of the Steering Committee on the National Information Infrastructure (GII); the Steering Committee of Chief Information Officers, League of European Research Universities (LERU); the Academic Advisory Board of the International Institute of Social History; and of the Library Steering Committee of Knowledge Unlatched.

Kurt is a frequent keynote speaker and has presented papers at numerous conferences in the United States, Europe and Africa on topics relating to digital libraries, innovation, changing libraries and e-publishing. In 2013 he delivered the OCLC Research Distinguished Seminar Lecture and in 2010 he was Course Director of the Ticer Digital Libraries Summer School.

Kurt studied Germanic Philology at the Free University Brussels in Belgium, Comparative Literature and Library & Information Studies at the University of California, Berkeley.