Joseph Hafner

Joseph Hafner is Dean of Libraries at York University in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Prior to joining York in 2024, he spent twenty years at McGill University Library, including more than a decade as Associate Dean, Collection Services. Earlier, he worked for more than twenty years at the Indianapolis Public Library, giving him extensive experience across public, academic, and research libraries. He has held numerous leadership roles in Canadian and international library organizations. He was recently elected to the Board of the Association of Research Libraries (ARL) and serves as Vice-Chair of the IFLA North American Regional Section. He recently completed his term as Chair of the OCLC Leaders Council and has held leadership roles with IFLA, IAML, CARL, HathiTrust, and Canadian and international shared print initiatives. His professional interests include library leadership, metadata and standards, shared collections, digital transformation, preservation, intellectual freedom, censorsh