Susan Kent

Biography: Susan Kent Managing Member S.R. Kent LLC Los Angeles, CA Susan Kent has more than 40 years experience in public libraries. In 2008, she formed S. R. Kent LLC, a consulting firm which provides services to libraries, foundations and nonprofit organizations in the areas of capital facilities planning and strategic planning, management and organization development, fundraising and leadership development. Ms. Kent served as the Director and Chief Executive of The Branch Libraries for the New York Public Library from 2004 through 2007 where she was responsible for the operation of the 87 branch libraries. For the ten years prior to assuming this position, she was the City Librarian for the Los Angeles Public Library, a library system that included a Central Library and 71 branch libraries that underwent a massive facilities infrastructure improvement program with 62 new or renovated branch libraries and major improvements to the Central Library. She also served as the Director of the Minneapolis Public Library (Minnesota)where she led the planning effort for a new Central Library and as the Deputy Director for the Tucson Public Library (Arizona) where she oversaw the program, planning and implementation for a new Main Library. Ms. Kent has been very involved in activities related to public libraries from an international perspective and is a frequent guest speaker at library symposia and conferences including the National Library Board of Singapore, the International Metropolitan Libraries Association, the Urban Libraries Council, the Bertelsmann Foundation, the Australia Library Association, the New Zealand Library Association, the international symposium “World Summit of Cities and Local Authorities on the Information Society” held in Lyon, France and the Canadian Urban Libraries Association. Ms. Kent served as Chair of the Urban Libraries Council and as President of the Public Library Association. She was the recipient of the American Library Association’s Lippincott Award for “distinguished service to the profession of librarianship”, the Charles Robinson Award by the Public Library Association for “creativity and innovation” and was named “Librarian of the Year” by Library Journal. Ms. Kent is the co-editor of Courtly Love in the Shopping Mall: Humanities Programs for Young Adults, published by the American Library Association. She has written a regular column on fund raising for the Bottom Line. Recent publications include “American Public Libraries: A Long Transformative Moment” in Daedalus, the Journal of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (Fall, 1996), The Public Library: Idea -- Cyberplace – Physical Presence, published by Bertelsmann in 2000 and Personalization of Electronic Network-based Library Services, co-authored with Christopher Chia and Rolf Hapel and published by Bertelsmann in 2004. Library Strategies International LLC, a consultancy firm that works with libraries around the world on strategy issues including collections, technology, facilities and planning, was formed by Ms. Kent and her colleague June Garcia in 2010. (November 2011)