As University Librarian and Dean of the Library, Suzanne Thorin Is Responsible for Providing

Biography for Suzanne E. Thorin

As University Librarian and Dean of the Library, Suzanne Thorin is responsible for providing outstanding services to the university’s faculty and students in the areas of library information technology, collections, access, facilities, and advancement. A member of the Chancellor’s Cabinet, Suzanne works in collaboration with other academic officers across campus.

Before coming to Syracuse University in October, 2005, Suzanne served for nine years as the Ruth Lilly University Dean of Libraries and Associate Vice President for Digital Libraries at Indiana University. During her nine-year tenure at Indiana University (IU), she began and nurtured the Digital Library Program (DLP), a partnership of the IU Libraries, University Information Technologies Services, the School of Library and Information Science, and the School of Informatics. The DLP at IU is among the top ten in the country and has been awarded nearly $5 million in grants. She also created a nationally recognized Information Commons, began a digital repository for faculty work, took steps to integrate digital library services with instructional technology, including Sakai, and planned a Research Commons for faculty members’ research needs.

Dean Thorin’s research includes documenting the history of digital library development in the United States and how the differences in ways that scholars work are influencing their use of technology. She co-authored with Daniel Greenstein, The Digital Library: A Biography ( and she was instrumental in planning a recent ARL conference entitled, Scholarly Tribes and Tribulations: How Tradition and Technology are Driving Disciplinary Change ( which explored the differences in the disciplines. Her paper, “Global Changes in Scholarly Communication” ( was a major resource for this conference and has recently been published by Springer.

She holds a bachelor’s degree in music education from North Park University in Chicago and master’s degrees in music history and literature and in library science from the University of Michigan. Thorin was formerly a member of the Library of Congress staff for more than 16 years. At the Library of Congress, she served as Chief of Staff to the Librarian of Congress and as the official U.S. representative, appointed by the White House, for the G-7 electronic libraries project, one of eleven G-7 pilot projects for the Global Information Society. She was also responsible for the Library’s National Digital Library Program.