contact us
search
SILS Welcomes Tamika Barnes McCollough - Director of the EPA Library
Oct. 9, 2007 - The School of Information and Library Science (SILS) welcomes Tamika Barnes McCollough, who joined the United States Environmental Protection Agency Library in Research Triangle Park as director in September 2007.
Tamika comes to the EPA Library from the F.D. Bluford Library at North Carolina A&T State University, where she worked since 2005 as head of reference and information literacy. She has taught at both UNC at Chapel Hill and North Carolina Central University as an adjunct professor of information and library science.
"We are delighted that Tamika has joined the EPA Library as director," said Dr. José-Marie Griffiths, dean of the School of Information and Library Science. "She brings strength and experience in both science and librarianship, which will benefit the EPA Library. We are looking forward to working with Tamika as our relationship with the EPA Library continues to strengthen."
SILS has provided library services at EPA-RTP since 1974. The agreement between the School and the Federal government provides three contract employees from SILS who staff the library, including the director, and offers between 10 and 18 internships every year for SILS master’s students at either the EPA library or the nearby National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences library. More than 300 SILS students have worked in one of the libraries since the beginning of the partnership.
"The EPA Library is a place for continuous learning from the EPA community, the forward thinking staff, and the new ideas and technology shared by the interns," said Barnes McCollough. "The opportunity to be part of such a prestigious program that has had phenomenal leadership in the past and interns that have become leaders in the profession is an honor. I am thrilled that I am able to combine my interest in the sciences, leadership and mentoring library school students all in one position."
Barnes McCollough replaces April Errickson as EPA-RTP director. Errickson was named to the post in 2003, and left in July 2007 when she accepted a Federal position as Federal Library Manager for the EPA-RTP Library.
The EPA-RTP library is one of 28 libraries in the EPA national library network and the only one to be staffed by university employees and students. The library serves the information needs of the roughly 2000 scientists working in the five laboratories on the EPA-RTP campus.
Barnes McCollough is a cum laude graduate of the School of Library and Information Sciences at North Carolina Central University and earned a B.A. degree in Biology from UNC at Chapel Hill. She has been involved with professional organizations since she was a library school student, and she currently serves on the Board of Directors for both the Special Libraries Association (SLA) and the North Carolina Chapter of SLA. She also serves as a member of the Professional Development Coordinating Committee of the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL).
Please join us in welcoming Tamika!