Susan Carol Curzon, Ph.D. -- A Brief Biography

Sue Curzon is Dean of the University Library for California State University, Northridge--a position she has held since 1992. The library serves a comprehensive, urban university with a student enrollment of 34,000. The Library has over 1.3 million volumes, and is technologically very sophisticated with many electronic resources and services including the nation's first AS/RS--automated storage & retrieval system. During Sue's tenure, the library was badly destroyed in the 1994 Northridge 6.7 earthquake. The earthquake dominated Sue's experience with substantial time devoted to the restoration of services and the re-building of the 235,000 sq. ft. library.

From 1993 to 1998, Sue was also responsible for the campus technological services and infrastructure including the administrative systems, the voice, video and data network and academic technology support. The systems were destroyed in the devastation of the earthquake and had to be rebuilt and redesigned during Sue's tenure.

Prior to Cal State Northridge, Sue Curzon was the Director of Libraries for the City of Glendale, California where she directed a Central Library, four branches and a bookmobile. Sue also worked for the County of Los Angeles Public Library in various positions including as a Regional Administrator where she supervised 11 branches, a books-by-mail service, four bookmobiles, and libraries in jails, as the Coordinator of Adult Services where she directed reference services for 92 branches and as a branch manager. She also has experience as a reference librarian and as a coordinator of children's services.

In addition to her academic and public library experience, Sue Curzon started her career as a special librarian for Kennecott Exploration--a deep-sea mining company.

Sue's Ph.D. is in Public Administration from the University of Southern California and she wrote her dissertation on executive dissent. Her Master's in Librarianship is from the University of Washington. Her bachelor's is in English from the University of California, Riverside.

Sue is the author of books, "Managing the Interview" and "Managing Change," and co-editor of "Proven Strategies for Building an Information Literacy Program," all published by Neal Schuman. Sue is also the author of a variety of articles.

Sue was Library Journal's "Librarian of the Year" in 1993, a nationally recognized award . She was awarded a "Distinguished Alumna" from the University of California, Riverside in 1994 and "Administrator of the Year" by Cal State Northridge's student body in 1996.

Sue has made many speeches, keynote addresses and presentations on various subjects including managing change and other management topics, libraries of the future, disaster restoration and information literacy. From 1995-2002, Sue was the Chair of California State University's Information Competence Committee which developed an information literacy program at all 23 campuses. Currently, she is leading a system-wide effort to develop a CSU Virtual Library to provide universal access to all students and faculty.

Susan C. Curzon's Home Page | Even Briefer Biography