Joseph Sanchez (Grand Junction, Colorado) is the Library Director for Mesa County Libraries. Sanchez was an academic librarian for 7 years prior to his current position. In 2006, Sanchez was hired as the Director of Red Rocks Community College Library in Lakewood, Colorado. It was there that he became one of the fist librarians to circulate e-readers and iPads. Out of this work he developed the conceptual framework that became the Douglas County eBook ownership program. He also designed and built an early Maker Space. In that same year Sanchez opened a production studio and launched the Wild Colorado wildlife app – an outdoor-recreation mobile app that brings the research power of the library to users’ smartphones.
Sanchez continues teaching at the academic level and writes about technology. He is a motivational speaker for at risk youth, and deeply involved in k12 education both as a teacher and librarian. Sanchez has taught as an adjunct professor for the University of Denver’s Library and Information Science program. (Nominated to participate in the Aspen Institute Dialogue on Public Libraries)