A librarian since 1992, an early internet technology enthusiast and self-proclaimed “futuring junkie,” Stacey A. Aldrich was appointed state librarian by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger in 2009. She resigned in October 2012 to accept a position as head of the Pennsylvania state libraries.
Aldrich received a bachelor of arts in Russian language and literature and a master's in library science from the University of Pittsburgh in 1992.
She served as the technology librarian for the Hood College Library from 1992 to 1996. Inspired by a demonstration of Mosaic, the web browser credited with popularizing the World Wide Web, at the National Institutes of Health, she immersed herself in the software and began demonstrating its capabilities to fellow librarians and faculty. After leaving Hood College, she went to work for the Maryland Department of Education, first as public library consultant from 1996 to 1999 and as branch chief of public libraries and state networking from 2000 to 2005.
Aldrich's ongoing interest in information technology is complemented by her career as a futurist. In 2000, she served as a senior associate for futuring think tank Coates & Jarratt, and she sat on the Association of Professional Futurists' Board of Directors afterward. The study and prediction of the future, she explained in a CSL newsletter, “informs how [she views] human culture, change, and achievement not only at work, but everywhere.”
After serving as assistant director of the Omaha Public Library from 2005 to 2007 and training librarians as part of Infopeople's Eureka! Leadership program, Aldrich accepted Governor Schwarzenegger's appointment to be Deputy Librarian of the California State Library.
She lists her interests as music, new technology, shopping and baseball, and aspires to learn piano so she can play One Angry Dwarf and 200 Solemn Faces by Ben Folds Five.
Biography (CSL website)
Planning for Alternate Futures—Stacey Aldrich (Library Journal)
2010 Eureka! Leadership Institute: Stacey Aldrich (Eureka Leadership Program)
