Jorge Sosa

Jorge Sosa is library leader with more than 30 years of professional experience. In addition to serving as University Librarian at AUP he serves as the AMICAL representative to AUP and as active member of the Leadership and Assessment Committee of the AMICAL Consortium. Jorge Sosa joined the AUP community as the Collection and Access Services Librarian and in 2006 and started as University Librarian bringing change and innovation to the University Library. Under his leadership the AUP Library has reoriented from heavy local and remote storage to a contemporary library based on digital collections (1,1 million e-books as well as other online resources) and open access. During his period the AUP Library became a members of the French Couperin consortium, confirmed the AUP Library’s position in the French environment. In later years, the AUP Library has become a hub open to other Paris libraries strengthening relations with local libraries, like the Sciences-Po Library, the BnF and the INHA Library. Under his leadership services like the document delivery and inter-library loans information literacy and research help have experimented greater development. With special interest in library spaces Jorge Sosa has actively participated in the creation of the new spaces of the AUP Learning Commons and the in the way services are delivered in integrated ways.

Previously, Jorge Sosa served for more than 7 years as library director at Universidad San Francisco de Quito, working as well in the architectural design with the local firms of architects and USFQ President Santiago Gangotena. During his time at USFQ he brought together the USFQ collection, USIS American Studies collection, as well as the UN and Work Bank repositories under one roof. Jorge Sosa worked in the creation of two library schools in his native country, Ecuador. He also started the library of the Colegio Menor San Francisco de Quito, starting with the design of spaces, the development of the core collection and the recruitment of the library personnel.

Philosopher by training Jorge Sosa graduated with honors from the Department of Philosophy at PUCE where he was part of the Student Government Association of his Department. In later years, during his Master’s in Library and Information Sciences also he participated in the Student Government Association of the School.

Jorge Sosa started dealing with pedagogy and learning as a young tutor, who soon became a young high school teacher of philosophy, ethics and logics at Colegio Francés de Quito. After his first master’s degree he continued as a professor of librarianship at the special library program created by the Fulbright Commission in Ecuador, the American Embassy Cultural Section and the Universidad Técnica Particular de Loja - UTPL.  A few years later, he directed and taught at the Library Program at the Colegio de la Comunidad San Francisco de Quito. After moving to France in 1999 he continued with his pedagogical work at AUP, especially teaching information literacy in numerous FirstBridge courses, as well as upper senior seminars.

Jorge Sosa social engagement started soon with his participation in left-wing catholic groups in the city of Quito trying to improve people’s living conditions in low-income neighborhoods.  After his graduate studies, back in Quito, he focused his community work with Grupo Toleracia (founding member) engaging for the depenalization of homosexuality in Ecuador. He did some counseling with LGBT students at USFQ and has had some involvement with the LGBT groups in Ecuador and France.