HSLS Director
bepstein@pitt.edu
It is with mixed feelings that I announce that Nancy Tannery has resigned as HSLS Senior Associate Director. She will be moving to the Provost’s Office in the Cathedral of Learning to serve as Assistant Provost. While we are happy and proud for her to have this new opportunity, we are also sad that she is leaving HSLS.
Nancy came to HSLS as a Reference Librarian in 1996, having earned her MSLS degree after working as a Research Specialist for several years. She rose very quickly to become Assistant Director in 1998, then Associate Director in 2004, and then Senior Associate Director in 2011. Along the way, she accumulated an impressive list of publications, presentations and honors, including the Medical Library Association’s Brodman Award for the Academic Medical Librarian of the Year in 2011. In 2015, she was the first librarian in 25 years to chair the Literature Selection and Technical Review Committee of the National Library of Medicine. She is widely respected for her leadership and scholarship.
Through the years, Nancy has been supervisor, mentor, coach, colleague, and friend to HSLS librarians and staff members. She has overseen the growth of our outstanding instruction and research support services, including library liaison programs in the schools of the health sciences and molecular biology information services. Her door has always been open, and there are few areas in the library that have not benefitted from her guidance.
The gap left by Nancy’s departure will be filled by Renae Barger, who has been appointed HSLS Associate Director for Research, Instruction and Clinical Information Services. Renae has been at HSLS since 2002, starting as a Library and Biomedical Informatics Trainee, and continuing as Reference Librarian & Document Delivery Coordinator, then Head of Access Services, and Assistant Director for Access Services. Since 2011, she has served as the Executive Director of the Middle Atlantic Region of the National Network of Libraries of Medicine (NNLM MAR). Renae brings strong leadership and organizational skills to her new position, having served first on HSLS Executive Committee and then on Management Council since 2007. As MAR Executive Director, she has built our dynamic and well-regarded program from the beginning, along with the excellent staff she recruited.
A national search for a new Executive Director of the NNLM MAR is in process.