Associate Dean Steven D. Hinckley joined both the Penn State Law and University Libraries faculties in fall 2006, having served for eight years as associate dean for library and information technology and professor at the University of South Carolina School of Law. Prior to that, Dean Hinckley directed the library and technology programs at the George Mason University School of Law and the University of Richmond School of Law, and served as associate librarian for public services at the Georgetown University Law Center, an assistant reference librarian at the Library of Congress Law Library, and the evening head of circulation at the University of Toledo College of Law.
Dean Hinckley has been actively involved in law librarianship on both national and regional levels, having served on numerous committees and having been elected as President of two American Association of Law Libraries Chapters (the Virginia Association of Law Libraries in 1988-89 and the Southeastern Association of Law Libraries in 1999-00).
During his career, he has taught courses on lawyering skills, legal research, and computer law, and co-directed the inaugural year of the University of Richmond's summer foreign study program in Caracas, Venezuela, during which Dean Hinckley taught international business transactions to both American and Venezuelan law students.
He has been a frequent speaker at library, technology, and legal professional programs on the subjects of law and technology, digital copyright, digital information licensing, the Patriot Act, Internet filtering, and online legal research, and has published a number of articles on information access policies and computers in legal education.