Brigitte Weinsteiger, interim Director of the Penn Libraries (Photo from Penn Libraries).
The Vice Provost and Director of the Penn Libraries stepped down, prompting the appointment of a new interim director.
Brigitte Weinsteiger assumed the role of interim director of Penn Libraries on Sept. 13. Her appointment comes after Constantia Constantinou, who had served as H. Carton Rogers III Vice Provost and Director of the Penn Libraries since August 2018, resigned from the role for personal family reasons, according to the announcement made on Wednesday.
Weinsteiger, who received a Master of Arts from Penn in 2013, has served as the Gershwind & Bennett Family Senior Associate Vice Provost for Collections and Scholarly Communications since September 2022. She will continue to serve in that role in addition to her appointment as interim director.
“I am truly honored by this opportunity to lead our talented Penn Libraries staff during this interim period,” Weinsteiger said in a Penn Libraries News press release. “They work with unwavering dedication, every day, to inspire learning and fuel the creation of knowledge — and to build dynamic resources, tools, and expertise to meet the evolving needs of the Penn community.”
In her role as Senior Associate Vice Provost, Weinsteiger oversees the Libraries’ academic community engagement efforts, the University’s departmental libraries, and the system’s information budget. She has prioritized diversity and inclusion in the Libraries’ collections through multiple projects — including establishing the Center of Global Collections, the Diversity in the Stacks initiative, and a collection of children’s books highlighting diversity and inclusion.
Before her time at Penn, Weinsteiger worked at Penn State University in its Center for Medieval Studies and Eberly Family Special Collections Library.
Her predecessor, Constantinou, was named the director of libraries in May 2018. A refugee at the age of 10 after the Turkish invasion of her home country, Cyprus, she arrived in the United States to attend Queens College in New York. Prior to her time at Penn, she worked in multiple university libraries around the New York City area.
The Daily Pennsylvanian is an independent, student-run newspaper. Please consider making a donation to support the coverage that shapes the University. Your generosity ensures a future of strong journalism at Penn.
Donate