NEWS from the LIBRARY of CONGRESS
November 13, 2014
Press contact: Donna Urschel (202) 707-1639, durschel@loc.gov
Library of Congress Announces New Chief for Humanities and Social Sciences Division
Jane Sánchez, who has more than 35 years of library and information program management experience—most recently as director of Library Services and Content Management at the Government Printing Office—has been appointed chief of the Humanities and Social Sciences Division at the Library of Congress.
Mark Sweeney, acting associate Librarian for Library Services at the Library of Congress, said “Ms. Sánchez brings a wealth of experience to this position. Throughout her career, she has developed innovative, dynamic and strategic operations and services, has managed multidisciplinary projects and developed processes, including being an early adapter of technology.”
Sánchez earned a bachelor’s degree in English from the University of New Mexico, an MLS from Simmons College in Boston, Massachusetts, and a Juris Doctorate from The American University, Washington College of Law in Washington, D.C.
Early in her career, she was employed at the Harvard University libraries and later was a technical-information specialist for the U.S. Department of Energy. Sánchez then worked in the private sector as director of Technical Research Services for the U.S. Synthetic Fuels Corp. and as director of the Information Resources Division at BNA, Inc. During her tenure at BNA, she introduced the first electronic work processes, BNA’s first intranet, and managed all acquisitions.
When Sánchez returned to the government sector, she became the head of the History and Culture Libraries at the Smithsonian Institution, which included libraries for the National Museum of American History, Air & Space Museum, Postal Museum, the Anacostia Community Museum, as well as the American Indian Research Library in Suitland, Maryland, and the Smithsonian Libraries Research Annex. She was responsible for supporting the scholars, curators and researchers at the Smithsonian and was also involved in cross departmental research.
After the Smithsonian, Sánchez became the associate director for Reference and Research at the U. S. Department of Justice (DOJ). During her time there, she managed human, financial, and information resources for the DOJ libraries and was successful in increasing usage of the libraries by DOJ staff. She expanded innovative services such as expert-witness research, developing enhanced legislative history research, and managed the complete re-design of the libraries’ intranet, the largest intranet inside the department. At the same time, she was responsible for completely revising the collection-development strategies of multiple DOJ and DOJ-bureau libraries to create a more unified, cost-efficient collection-development process.
Sánchez was then hired into her senior-level position at the Government Printing Office. There, she has managed a staff of approximately 100 people, guided strategic planning processes, and improved the office’s work-life environment. In addition, she is a certified Contract Officer’s Representative and has taken classes in federal appropriations law, contract management, federal budgeting, and project management.
The Humanities and Social Sciences Division (HSS) provides reference service and collection development in the Main Reading Room, the Local History and Genealogy Research Service and the Microform and Electronic Resources Center at the Library of Congress. HSS regularly sponsors programs in the arts, humanities and social sciences.
The Library of Congress, the nation’s oldest federal cultural institution and the largest library in the world, holds more than 158 million items in various languages, disciplines and formats. The Library serves the U.S. Congress and the nation both on-site in its reading rooms on Capitol Hill and through its award-winning website at www.loc.gov.
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PR14-200
11/13/14
ISSN: 0731-3527