UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Lauren Reiter, Penn State University Libraries faculty business librarian, has been named head of the William and Joan Schreyer Business Library and appointed the Louis and Virginia Benzak Business Librarian, effective Oct. 1. She had served as interim head since March 2024.
The guidelines for the endowed position of Louis and Virginia Benzak Business Librarian state that the appointee should be “renowned for sustained and outstanding academic achievement to provide library services tailored to business students and faculty.”
“Lauren is a recognized and respected leader at Penn State and thought leader in the field of librarianship. She has a strong reputation for distinguished scholarship and service, having held leadership roles in national and statewide library organizations, and has actively shaped the scholarly conversation in areas including business librarianship, information literacy and financial literacy,” Rebecca Waltz, associate dean for Learning and Engagement, said. “I look forward to collaborating with Lauren in her new capacities as we in the University Libraries continue to advance our ambitious and strategic efforts to amplify Penn State’s teaching, research and engagement mission.”
A business liaison librarian at Penn State from 2012 through 2024, Reiter supported the academic and scholarship success of Penn State’s departments of economics, finance, risk management, accounting and management. Her responsibilities in this role included course instruction sessions, outreach programming and curation of subject-specific library resources, as well as faculty research activity and service to the scholarly field of librarianship.
In 2015 Reiter was selected as the University Libraries’ Sally W. Kalin Early Career Librarian for Learning Innovations. This three-year endowed position allows each recipient to support new initiatives and explore innovative approaches to services, collections and use of technologies that will advance library user engagement and success. During that period she also was recognized among the 2016 cohort of Movers and Shakers by Library Journal, the American Library Association’s national publication. Her selection noted her work to establish the Scott H. and Sarah W. Steinhauer Financial Education Endowment in the University Libraries for supporting Penn State students’ financial education.
In 2018 Reiter earned tenure as associate librarian and in 2022 was promoted to the rank of librarian. Recently, she has edited books on the topics of business information literacy and the future of reference and authored articles in widely read publications including the Journal of Academic Librarianship, College & Undergraduate Research Libraries and portal: Libraries and the Academy.
Reiter has served on more than 20 Penn State committees and task forces addressing topics ranging from promotion and tenure and Library Faculty Organization matters to strategic planning and programming. She has served the library profession through leadership roles in the American Library Association and its Reference and User Service Association and Business Reference and Services Section, as well as the Pennsylvania Library Association and its 21st Century Literacies Initiative, PA Forward.
“I am deeply honored to be appointed as Louis and Virginia Benzak Business Librarian and head of Schreyer Business Library. I see it as a tremendous opportunity to further invest in the Penn State students and faculty I work with every day, and I am grateful to all of my colleagues who have inspired me.” Reiter said.
Reiter received her undergraduate degree in English from Kenyon College, a master’s degree in library information science from the University of Pittsburgh and an MBA from Penn State.