Deborah Schander began her tenure as Connecticut’s first female State Librarian in 2021. Prior to joining the Connecticut State Library, she was an educator and law librarian, serving in library administration at Seton Hall University and Vanderbilt University as well as working at law libraries in Georgia and California, where she specialized in foreign and international legal research, technology, and library outreach. She holds a JD and an MLIS from Florida State University (2007).

Deborah is an appointed member of Connecticut’s Commission on Educational Technology; the Data Analysis and Technology Advisory Board; and the Connecticut Semiquincentennial Commission. She represents the State Library on more than two dozen other local, regional, and national library, law, history, and archives interest groups.

Deborah is past chair of the Professional Engagement, Growth, and Advancement special interest section of the American Association of Law Libraries, past president of the Atlanta Law Libraries Association, as well as current vice chair of Southern Connecticut State University’s ILS Advisory Board.

Deborah lives in Berlin, where she is an active member of the Kensington-Berlin Rotary Club. The daughter of an educator and a scientist, she has been to all 48 contiguous states; read the complete Sherlock Holmes stories; can recite the first 22 elements of the periodic table in order; and owns a Star Trek cookie cutter set. In true librarian fashion, her house is full of books, crafts, and two rescue cats who oversee it all.

Last Updated July 2022

History of Connecticut State Librarians

The Connecticut State Library was formed by Connecticut legislature in May, 1854. When the State Library opened, collections were kept in the State Houses in Hartford and New Haven. In 1910, those materials were moved to the Supreme Court building and State Library in Hartford. 

Dr. James Hammond Trumbull was the first State Librarian for Connecticut. There have been 11 State Librarians. Officially, the State Library is part of the executive branch of the State of Connecticut, which is run by the Department of Education.