A New Old Shoe … Or an Old New Shoe?

Posted by Neil Rambo on October 10th, 2008 Posted in: News From NNLM PNR

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It depends on how you look at it.

If you’ve been around for a while (since before 2004 or thereabouts) you may recognize the name, if not the older face. If you are newer than that, then allow me to introduce myself: I’m Neil Rambo, acting director of the University of Washington Health Sciences Libraries and acting director of the NN/LM Pacific Northwest Region. I assumed this role at the beginning of September upon the resignation of Sherrilynne Fuller after 20 years of groundbreaking leadership. I am honored and humbled to have the opportunity to serve in this capacity.

I served as associate director of the NN/LM Pacific Northwest Region through the 1990s and up to 2004, when Cathy Burroughs took on this role and re-made it as her own. From 2004 to 2007 I was associate director of the UW Health Sciences Libraries for public services. From then until now, I split my time between the UW Libraries and the Association of Research Libraries exploring the role of libraries in the support of research and the emerging phenomenon of e-science.

I am pleased to be back, combining my experience of working throughout the region with working in a research intensive environment, in service of both.

From the perspective of the NN/LM Pacific Northwest Region, next up on the agenda is a site visit by a team from the National Library of Medicine on October 22. This site visit is to provide a mid-course assessment of regional programs and needs. Several network members have been invited to help round out this picture. Those members who will be providing testimony represent a broad range of stakeholders — for example: resource libraries, hospital libraries, public and academic libraries, community-based organizations, and health professionals.

The NN/LM PNR staff thank all network members who responded to our request for feedback in advance of the site visit. The SurveyMonkey questionnaire soliciting this feedback is now closed. We will provide a report about the site visit and what was learned from network member feedback in a future Dragonfly post.

It’s good to be back and I look forward to working with you.