Chair, SPARC Steering Committee
Virginia Steel became UCLA University Librarian in July 2013. Steel came to UCLA after eight years as University Librarian at the University of California, Santa Cruz, during which she oversaw a $100 million expansion and renovation of the largest library on campus. She was also instrumental in bringing the Grateful Dead Archive to UC Santa Cruz. From 2001 to 2005 Steel served as director of libraries at Washington State University, where she oversaw the libraries on the Pullman campus and coordinated library services across the four university campuses.
Earlier in her career she served as associate director for public services at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (1997-2001) and in various positions at UC San Diego (1988-97) and Arizona State University (1981-87). Steel was president of the Library Administration and Management Association (LAMA) in 2004-05 and has served on the boards of LAMA, the Greater Western Library Alliance, and the Center for Research Libraries as well as the OCLC Global Council. Her professional contributions include editorships, articles, invited papers, numerous presentations, and a video production.
She holds a BA from the University of Rochester and an MA from the Graduate Library School at the University of Chicago.