Patricia Steele (University of Maryland)

Dean Patricia Steele provides strategic direction and leadership for the University of Maryland Libraries, the largest university research library system in the Baltimore-Washington, DC, metropolitan area. She is responsible for operations of the eight libraries of the university’s flagship campus and oversees a $23.7 million budget and staff comprised of 113 professionals and 84 support positions. After being named dean in 2009, Steele led librarians and staff through an inclusive plan to reposition the libraries by expanding partnerships and supporting changing needs and expectations of students and faculty. In 2010, McKeldin Library opened the first phase of its Terrapin Learning Commons, a technology-rich space to support student learning and collaboration.

Prior to her appointment as dean, Steele was Ruth Lilly University Dean of Libraries at Indiana University, where she served for more than 30 years in numerous leadership roles. In Indiana, Steele served as president of the state federation of libraries and officer in the Digital Library Federation. She concentrated on the technologies that have informed the work of libraries in the digital transition, including her work on behalf of the Committee on Institutional Cooperation to negotiate a contract with Google to digitize millions of volumes of member libraries. She was also a founding officer of the HathiTrust, an innovative library-controlled solution to long-term preservation, which the University of Maryland Libraries have recently joined.