Libraries

Nov 28 2012
When: 5:00 PM - 6:30 PM
Where: Harman Academy
Event Type: Polymathic Pizza

Event Details

The organization and retrievability of information in a variety of formats has been a preoccupation -- and a profession -- since time immemorial.  For centuries, archives and libraries served this purpose.  The late twentieth century witnessed a translation of information to digital formats.  By the early twenty-first century, information management was addressing itself to a global information environment stored digitally and transferred at electronic speed.  Drawing upon her academic preparation and long career in library, archival, and information management, Catherine Quinlan, holder of the Valerie and Ronald Sugar Dean’s Chair of the USC Libraries will guide students in a discussion of the universality of information culture in our contemporary world and the polymathic skills involved in information management.

Speaker Information

Speaker

Catherine Quinlan

Catherine Quinlan was appointed Dean of the USC Libraries effective August 1, 2007. She is responsible for guiding the university’s efforts to establish the model for the 21st-century library by providing leadership for USC’s library staff; collaborating with other university deans, faculty and friends to optimize and develop resources for scholars; and building partnerships with art, museum and library institutions throughout Southern California.

Quinlan came to USC after a decade at the University of British Columbia (UBC), where she headed a library system encompassing 300 full-time staff members and more than 21 sites. Beginning in 2004, she also served as managing director of UBC’s Irving K. Barber Learning Centre. Before joining UBC, she spent seven years as director of libraries and chief librarian at the University of Western Ontario, and as an adjunct professor in the university’s Graduate School of Library and Information Science. Previously, Quinlan oversaw the health sciences library at Memorial University of Newfoundland and was a member of the adjunct business administration faculty.

She holds an MBA from Memorial University of Newfoundland, a master of library studies degree from Dalhousie University and a bachelor of music degree from Queen’s University.