Andrew S. Breidenbaugh

Andrew S. Breidenbaugh is a librarian, and he is director of the Tampa-Hillsborough County Public Library System. He has worked to bring online databases, eBooks, streaming media, music, and courses to the Tampa-Hillsborough library system.^[1]

Education

Breidenbaugh began his education in 1988 at Towson University, Towson, Maryland. There he earned a Bachelor of Arts in History and Asian Studies, and during this time he became a member of the Phi Alpha Theta history honors society as well as the National History Honor Society. In 1990 he finished his Master of Arts in History at the University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland. His area of concentration was Middle East and Islamic History. Finally, in 1996, he completed his education at the University of South Florida (USF) School of Information, where he received his degree in Library and Information Science.^[2]

Career

Before his graduation from USF, he managed a Barnes & Noble bookstore for several years. Towards the end of his graduate studies at the same university, he worked for the City of Tampa Archives & Records center, where he accessed, arranged, and described records of the Tampa Fire Department. In 1996, he started his first job as a librarian, and this was at the USF Tampa Campus Library. He was an adjunct reference librarian, a position he held into 1999, and it was there where he began his work with library technology and online services. Nearly concurrent to this time (1997–1999), Breidenbaugh also worked for the New Tampa Regional Library as a reference librarian. Meanwhile, he was an adjunct instructor for the USF School of Information, where he taught the classes Basic Information Sources & Services, Internet Research Skills, and Internet Resources.^[2]

From 1999 to 2002, he was senior librarian for Electronic Reference & Information, a call-in and email reference service for the Tampa-Hillsborough library system. From there he became Principal Librarian for the John F. Germany (JFG) Public Library, Tampa’s main library, and he continued his focus on library technology and internet resources. He was in that position from 2002 to 2006. Following his time at the JFG Library, he was named chief librarian for the South Tampa Region. In April 2014, he became manager of library technology & collections, which included oversight of the library’s collection process and their budget. Most recently, as of February, 2015, Breidenbaugh was named director of the Tampa-Hillsborough County Public Library System, and he will oversee its $36.5 million annual operating budget, 25 libraries, and two mobile outlets.^[2][3]

Organizations and volunteering

Mr. Breidenbaugh is an active member of the American Library Association and the Florida Library Association. He also volunteers with First Robotics, judging for FIRST Tech Challenge events in the Tampa Bay area.^[4]

References