Hess is the Associate Dean for Research, collections, and scholarly communication at Syracuse University Library. She is responsible for guiding new initiatives to evaluate, strengthen and promote the collections of the SU libraries. She also provides leadership in developing goals, and determining policies and directions to meet the challenges of the changing modes of scholarly communication. Hess was the founder and former director of the Digital Library of the Commons http://dlc.dlib.indiana.edu . Before coming to Syracuse in August 2008 she was Director of Library and Information Services at the workshop in Political Theory and Policy Analysis, Indiana University. She has been the Information Officer for the International Association for the Study of the Commons since 1997. Hess has an extensive publication record and has been a presenter or planner for numerous national and international professional conferences. She co-edited “Understanding Knowledge as a Commons: From Theory to Practice” (MIT, 2007). She has also been a key contributor to website development and has been a consultant in the research areas of the commons and knowledge management for several African universities. She has been the information officer and served on the executive council of the International Association for the Study of the Commons since 1997. Her research interests are: Knowledge as a commons; new commons; the preservation of the scholarly record; international scholarly collaboration; the digital divide and information equity; particularly in Africa; open access; peer production and mass collaboration.
Articles
The Unfolding of the Knowledge Commons, St. Anthony’s International Review (2012)
This piece reports on some of the significant research and activities within the knowledge commons...
The Calculus of Commitment: The Ostroms, The Workshop and The Commons, The Commons Digest (2010)
"When Elinor Ostrom was interviewed at Indiana University after winning the 2009 Nobel Prize in...
A Framework for Analysing the Microbiological Commons (with Elinor Ostrom), International Social Science Journal (2006)
In an earlier article, “Ideas, artifacts and facilities: information as a common-pool resource”, we examined...
The Name Change; or, What Happened to the “P”? (with Ruth Meinzen-Dick), The Commons Digest (2006)
This past spring, members voted to change the name and the mission statement of the...
Resource Guide for Authors: Open Access, Copyright, and the Digital Commons., CPR Digest (March) (2005)
"This article aims to introduce you to the important issues about copyright and open access;...
Book Chapters
A Framework for Analyzing the Knowledge Commons : a chapter from Understanding Knowledge as a Commons: from Theory to Practice., Understanding Knowledge as a Commons: from Theory to Practice (2005)
Who hasn’t heard of the six blind men of Indostan encircled around an elephant?1 The...
Working Papers
Private and Common Property Rights (with Elinor Ostrom), Encyclopedia of Law & Economics (2007)
The relative advantages of private property and common property for the efficiency, equity, and sustainability...
Conference Documents
Mapping the New Commons, Governing Shared Resources: Connecting Local Experience to Global Challenges, the Twelfth Biennial Conference of the International Association for the Study of Commons (2008)
From Introduction: "This paper is a guide to the rapidly growing area of research and...
Studying Scholarly Communication: Can Commons Research and the IAD Framework Help Illuminate Complex Dilemmas? (with Elinor Ostrom) (2004)
"This paper presents a framework for analyzing the complex resource of scholarly communication as a...
The Knowledge Commons: Theory and Collective Action; or Kollektive Aktionismus?, the Wizards of OS 3: The Future of the Digital Commons,” An International conference (2004)
Keynote address presented at the Wizards of OS 3: The Future of the Digital Commons,”...
Dilemmas of Building a Sustainable Equitable Information Resource. Workshop in Political Theory and Policy Analysis, Indiana University (1998)
From Page 1: "Because information plays a central role in environmental and CPR research, the...
Presentations
Institutional Design and Governance in the Microbial Research Commons, The International Symposium on Designing the Microbial Research Commons (2009)
Presentation slides on institutional design and governance to facilitate a global research commons for microbiology...
Other
Governing the Commons (with Ruth Meinzen-Dick, Jesse Ribot, Jerry Michalski, and Environmental Defense Fund), Library Publications (2010)
Hess described those New Commons as shared resources for which there are no pre-existing rules...