Karen Bohrer, new Head Librarian of the Blegen. Photo by Tarek Elemam
The new Head Librarian of the Blegen Library is Karen M. Bohrer. From 2002 until this summer, Ms. Bohrer was founding Director of the Bissell Library at the American College of Thessaloniki (ACT). The Bissell Library is one of the largest English-language libraries in Greece supporting a wide range of undergraduate and graduate courses offered by ACT, the higher education division of Anatolia College (established in 1886, only five years after the ASCSA).
Under Ms. Bohrer’s leadership, the Bissell Library has also become a pioneer in the application of technology to learning. In addition to its print collection, which doubled in size during Ms. Bohrer’s tenure, the Bissell Library offers over 21,000 electronic periodicals, of which many are are full-text journals, and over 37,000 electronic books. The Stavros S. Niarchos Technology Center, comprised of a teleconferencing room, four classrooms with audiovisual equipment, two computer labs, a multimedia lab and production studio, a networking lab, a computing and telecommunications center and faculty offices, is also located in the Library.
Ms. Bohrer has been a member of the American Library Association for over 28 years, and has over two decades of practical experience in book and journal acquisition, reference and user services, technical services, and library management. She is an alumna of St. John’s College in Annapolis, Maryland and, after finishing her MSLS at the Catholic University of America, she started her career at the Chicago Public Library. In 1984, she moved back to Connecticut, where she grew up, and held a variety of increasingly senior posts at libraries across the state. She is also a member of the Association of College and Research Libraries and, while at ACT, was Vice-Chair of the American International Consortium of Academic Libraries (AMICAL).
