Maria Souliotis, MLS/MA (she/her/hers) Music & Performing Arts Librarian
Lucille Caudill Little Fine Arts & Design Library

Maria Souliotis is the Music & Performing Arts Librarian at UK. Maria holds an MLS from Texas Woman's University and an MA in Musicology from the University of Denver, where she taught as a Graduate Teaching Assistant at the Lamont School of Music. She began her career in academic libraries at Northeastern State University (Tahlequah, OK), where she served as Instructor of Library Services and subject liaison to the NSU College of Business & Technology and the NSU Art, Music, & Drama programs. While at NSU, Maria also taught Music Appreciation and Library Media courses as an adjunct instructor. She was also an active member of the NSU University/Community Chorus, performing with the ensemble on their tour to Estonia and Latvia and singing in the chorus for their production of Dido & Aeneas.

Maria is an active member of the Music Library Association (MLA), serving on its Professional Development Forum Working Group to plan and deliver professional development sessions to members. She also served as the Vice-Chair of MLA’s Mountain-Plains Chapter (MPMLA) from 2022–2024 and has presented at regional MLA conferences. In 2024, Maria joined her MLA colleagues in contributing entries to "Indi Voices: A Discography of Native American Music," a project-in-perpetuity dedicated to “amplifying the voices of Native American artists.”

Maria enjoys research and writing and is proud to have published multiple book reviews and creative works. Her Master’s Thesis, "Lifting the Veil on Hindi Film Song Sequences: An Approach to Analysis" (2015), explores how visual, aural, and textual elements of Hindi film song sequences are connected to the context of South Asian history and culture. Her first original article, “Mapping the Way: Teaching Music Information Literacy in the Contemporary Information Landscape,” appears in the September 2024 issue of "Notes: The Quarterly Journal of the Music Library Association." Maria is eager to continue exploring her research interests, which include narratives in music, film, and the written word as well as topics in Ethnomusicology, during her career.

Outside of work, Maria enjoys reading, making music, crochet and fiber arts, cooking new recipes, exercising, traveling, journaling, exploring mindfulness, and spending quality time with friends and family.