Dr. Tara Baillargeon is the dean of university libraries. She joined Marquette in November 2011 as department head of research and instructional services. As assistant dean for digital scholarship from 2017 to 2022, Baillargeon helped plan and deliver digital scholarship services in support of student, faculty and library needs, and coordinated research services, instruction, e-learning and a funding information center.

Her accomplishments at Marquette include a multiyear curriculum mapping to identify all Marquette courses that would benefit from information literacy and librarian support; increasing the number of classes taught each year by librarians; leading the planning and development of the Library’s Digital Scholarship Lab space, services, programming and staffing; collaborating with the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee and the Milwaukee Public Library on a graduate student summer internship program for students from National Taiwan Normal University; and partnering with UWM Libraries to develop an annual Library Instruction Summer Camp for library professionals.

Baillargeon previously worked from 2002-2011 at Kansas State University Libraries, where she earned the rank of tenured associate professor and served in progressive roles, including social sciences librarian and department head for faculty and graduate services.

Baillargeon has a bachelor’s degree in communication studies and women’s studies from the University of Windsor, a master’s in library and information science from the University of Western Ontario and an Ed.D. in educational leadership from Kansas State.