Education

Master of Science in Information, University of Michigan
BA in Art History and Archaeology, University of Missouri-Columbia

Specializations 

Special Collections and Archives 
Library instruction
Primary source literacy
Cultural heritage outreach and social media

Biography

Colleen Theisen comes to the School of Library and Information Science after a career as a classroom teacher, special collections librarian, manager, and curator. Theisen completed her Master of Science in Information, specializing in Archives and Records Management at the University of Michigan. She holds a BA in Art History and Archaeology from the University of Missouri-Columbia, and completed her teaching certification for 5-12 Art education.  In her special collections career, most recently she was Chief Curator of Exhibitions, Programs, and Education for Syracuse University’s Special Collections Research Center, where she was supervising teaching, outreach, and the conservation lab, and serving on the management team. She is a social media content creator and a national leader on social media outreach for cultural heritage institutions. 

Recent Projects and Presentations

• 2026 Rare Books and Manuscripts Section Conference Program Planning Co-Chair
• 2025 Rare Books and Manuscript Section Annual Conference. Presenter, It’s Not You, It’s a Trend: Managing Social Media in Archives and Special Collections since 2020.
• 2024 Rare Books and Manuscript Section Annual Conference, Discussion Moderator,  Emergency Response, or Permanent Change? The Future of Pandemic-Era Public Services.
• 2023 Rare Books and Manuscripts Section Annual Conference. Presenter, Towards Special Collections Studies: Histories, Theories, Frameworks. 

Recent Publications 

• McLune, Juli, Sean Heyliger, Nikki Thomas, Colleen Theisen. Sustaining Connections with Tools that Hate Us. The American Archivist, Fall/Winter 2025. (In press).
• Theisen, Colleen. “Perspectives on Practice: Special Collections” in Librarians Learning Together edited by Jennifer Burek Pierce and Nancy Henke, 2024.

• Theisen, Colleen (Expected August 2024). Review of The Rise of AI: Implications and Applications of Artificial Intelligence in Academic Libraries by Sandy Hervieux and Amanda Wheatley (Eds.) Chicago: ACRL, 2022.To be published in Summer 2024 by ALA/ACRL’s Rare Books Magazine (RBM).