Re-Tooling Academic Libraries for the Digital Age:
Missions, Collections, Staffing
California Academic & Research Libraries
Third Annual Conference
DR. PATRICIA SENN BREIVIK
Biography
Dr. Patricia Senn Breivik serves as Dean of the University Libraries at Wayne State University. As the Dean of the University Libraries, Dr. Breivik is the chief administrative officer in charge of the University Libraries, Media Services, the University Press, and the Library and Information Science Program. Prior to her appointment at Wayne State University in June 1995, she served as Associate Vice President for Information Resources at the Towson State University campus of the University of Maryland System for five years. At Towson, she was responsible for organizing, developing and managing units including the library, academic computing services, te1ecommunications, office automation, satellite systems, telephone and fax systems, and for campus-wide networking. Previously she served for over ten years as Director of the library and telecommunications services which support three academic institutions on the Auraria campus in Denver. During most of this period, she also served as part-time special assistant to the President of the University of Colorado. Earlier positions were as Dean of Library Services at Sangamon State University in Springfield, Illinois, and as Assistant Dean of the Pratt Institute, Graduate School of Library and Information Science, Brooklyn, New York.
Breivik has held numerous leadership positions at the state and national levels within both librarianship and higher education. Currently, for example, she serves as chair of the
National Forum on Information Literacy, an umbrella group of over 65 national
organizations concerned with the need for people to be able to access and use information effectively; and she is President of the Association of College and Research Libraries.
She is a frequent speaker and writer on the topic of information literacy and resourcebased learning and was the keynote speaker and evaluator at the national conference for the South Australian Forum for Information Literacy in Adelaide in 1992.
The book which she co-authored with the now President of Ohio State University won the 1990 G.K. Hall Library Literature Award. Her most recent book, Information Literacy:
Educating Children for the 21st Century, was co-authored with her sister, J.A. Senn, and is targeted at elementary school principals and other school leaders. Other recent awards include the American Association of School Librarians Executive Board recognition for special contributions to School Library Media Programs in 1992, the American Council on Education Fellows Program in Academic Administration Service Award in 1990, and the Columbia University School of Library Service Distinguished Alumni Award in 1989. Breivik holds a B.A. from Brooklyn College, an M.L.S. from Praff Institute, and a D.L.S. from Columbia University.
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