The University of Pennsylvania has named Brigitte Weinsteiger as H. Carton Rogers III Vice Provost and director of the Penn Libraries, effective June 1. Provost John L. Jackson Jr. announced the appointment today following a national search.
Weinsteiger has served as the Gershwind and Bennett Family Senior Associate Vice Provost for Collections and Scholarly Communications since September 2022 and as interim director since September 2023. In this capacity, she oversees the Libraries’ $30 million budget for collections, its 10 million print and electronic volumes, 350,000 journals, and a rich array of digital resources. She leads the Collections and Scholarly Communications division of the Penn Libraries, ensuring that the selection, acquisition, management, and preservation of the Libraries’ collections meet the diverse needs of the Penn community, and oversees outreach, teaching, and research support to faculty and students at Penn, in Philadelphia, and beyond.
“Brigitte has been a visionary and dynamic leader of the Penn Libraries for more than 16 years,” said Jackson, “placing a high priority on engaging our campus and our community, advancing diversity and inclusion across our collections, and promoting open communications both internally and externally. She will be a great partner for all of us in advancing the values of In Principle and Practice in the years ahead, accelerating interdisciplinary inquiry across campus while deepening our connections with local neighbors and with the wider world through research and scholarship.
“I am very grateful to Deputy Provost Beth A. Winkelstein and the members of the consultative committee that she chaired, who helped us to arrive at this outstanding result for our university.”
In her 16-year tenure with Penn Libraries, Weinsteiger has overseen a wide range of departments, including the 11 departmental libraries situated in academic and cultural buildings across the university’s campus, among them the Fisher Fine Arts Library and the recently renovated Holman Biotech Commons. Leading 115 highly experienced staff, along with hundreds of student employees and interns, she has launched initiatives that advance the Penn Libraries as a whole, including Diversity in the Stacks, and the transformation of Penn scholarship to make it freely available to the world. She also led the formation of the new Center for Global Collections and defined a set of strategic priorities for the Libraries’ Special and Global Collections that emphasize building distinctive collections that create an enduring contribution to history and global understanding.
“I see my role as a library leader to connect vision, partners, resources, and strategy. Libraries are not just about books or buildings; they are also about people,” Weinsteiger said. “A central aim of the Libraries will be to engage and partner with university and community stakeholders in furthering the University’s academic and societal mission, including effective communication and collaboration with partners, a pragmatic resolve to inspire a culture focused on practical outcomes and engagement, and an ethos of entrepreneurship to find opportunities across campus and beyond.”
Weinsteiger comes to the role with a master of science in library and information science from Drexel University as well as a master of arts in liberal arts with a focus in medieval studies from the University of Pennsylvania, along with two bachelor of arts degrees from Penn State, one in medieval studies and one in integrative arts.
