Irena Klaic is the Library Director of The Tianjin Juilliard School and a faculty member at the Graduate School.  

Klaic has extensive international library experience, having opened, developed, and renovated libraries in Europe, United States, and China. She helped organize national and state library conferences for the American Library Association (ALA), the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL), and Texas Library Association. While living in Austin, Texas, she co-created the curriculum and taught library leadership workshops for cohorts of new library directors and library leaders.  

With a master’s degree focusing on pedagogy, Klaic has been teaching higher education courses and library research courses for over 20 years. At Tianjin Juilliard, she teaches an elective interdisciplinary course in Music and Society with a focus on critical thinking, research, library resources, and preparation for doctoral-level research.  

Klaic holds a Master of Science in Information Studies from The University of Texas at Austin, and a Master of Arts in Philosophy and Sociology from the University of Zagreb, Croatia. She was a recipient of the Institute of Museums and Library Services (IMLS) Stepping Up Grant (2009-2011), and a recipient of the national CJCLS/EBSCO Community College Learning Resources Award (2016) for co-leading a creative library instruction team and creating award-winning tutorials.