About the Mendel Library Staff

Staff Biographies 

Sara Hagenbuch joined the Mendel Music Library staff in August 2017. Sara came to the Princeton University Library from the University of California, Berkeley, where she was the circulation and reserves supervisor at the Earth Sciences and Map Library. Prior to this position, Sara served for four years as the library circulation supervisor at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. Sara also maintains an active career as a professional singer. For six years she was the soprano II section leader at San Francisco's St. Dominic's Catholic Church. In September 2013, Sara founded the small opera company Black Box Baroque in collaboration with San Francisco Bay area musicians passionate about historically informed performance and staged opera. She produced and sang in four seasons of fully staged opera performances with orchestra that featured complete Italian operas and dramatic works by George Frideric Handel, including "Orlando," "Ariodante," "Alcina," and, in 2017, "Aci, Galatea, e Polifemo." Sara earned a bachelor of music degree from Ithaca College and holds a master's degree in vocal performance from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music.

Jacob Hughes joined the Mendel Music Library Staff in December 2021. Jacob came to Princeton University with several years of library experience. He has held positions at Rider University’s Franklin Moore Library (Circulation Assistant) and Montgomery Museum of Art and History (Collections Assistant & Docent). He has also worked as the Location Manager at Hunterdon Academy of the Arts and as a freelance graphic designer. Jacob has been an active bassist for 15 years and holds a Bachelor of Science Degree in History from Radford University.  

Brittany began working for Mendel Music Library in July of 2015. She has graduate degrees in Library and Information Science and Music History and Literature from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Brittany was the teaching assistant for the online Music 102 course (American Popular Music) for 2.5 years during graduate school and also worked in the Music Library at UWM. At the UWM Music Library, she was responsible for website design and maintenance for the Music Library and was in charge of the electronic reserves.

Brittany has a B.S. in Information Technology from the University of MA-Lowell and worked in the private IT sector for many years as an IT specialist.  Much of her IT work focused on website design, server and website maintenance, network troubleshooting and technical support.  She also attained a B.A. in Voice (Mezzo-Soprano) from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and has been a part of many choirs, often as a soloist. Brittany has an extensive background in piano and some experience in trumpet performance.