Penn Libraries Enter a ‘New Era of Innovation’

From the U. of Pennsylvania:

Having just completed her first year, Constantia Constantinou is helping to guide the Penn Libraries into the future, driving collections, forming new partnerships, and reimagining spaces.

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Constantinou arrived at Penn one year ago to become the H. Carton Rogers III Vice Provost and Director of the Penn Libraries. Rogers had been at Penn for 43 years, the Libraries director for the last 14, building the libraries on “very solid ground,” she says.

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This is a time, she says, that libraries are becoming global societies, expanding on the role of collecting, preserving, and making knowledge accessible. Penn, she says, will be a leader in addressing the most important issues and challenges facing scholarly communications.

“We have to share what is unique to Penn with the world so it can benefit the world,” she says. “That will be in our guiding principles moving forward, as we look at our collections, as we explore what is the expertise here at Penn, as we look to see what innovative projects we will be engaging in, as we continue to build stronger partnerships around the globe.”

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Transformation of the Libraries spaces is also one of the priorities for the future, she says. “Something I find essential to my job that they never taught us in library school is library renovation and construction,” she says.

She points to the Moelis Family Grand Reading Room on the first floor, and the window-ringed sixth floor, of the main Van Pelt-Dietrich Library Center as examples of what she hopes to continue. The Biotech Commons is the next major project to transform the biomedical library, she says.

“We are recognizing that space is an active conversation in everything we do,” she says. “How do we orchestrate spaces to serve both the users and the collections and also inspire activity and collaboration?”

Much More in the Complete Article (approx. 2800 words)

See Also: Constantia Constantinou Appointed Vice Provost and Director of Penn Libraries (May 18, 2018)

Filed under: Jobs, Libraries, News, Patrons and Users, Scholarly Communications