New leaders selected for EPA-RTP Library

The UNC at Chapel Hill School of Information and Library Science (SILS) has selected new leadership for the EPA Library under its contract to provide library services for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in Research Triangle Park.

The new director is April Errickson, and the new assistant director is Hannah Knott Rogers, both former employees of the Dialog Corporation in Cary, N.C. The former EPA Library director, Deborah Balsamo, has assumed a new position as information technology specialist assigned to EPA’s Office of Administration and Resources Management, Information Resources Management Division.

Errickson, a 1999 SILS graduate, formerly was director of the U.S. Knowledge Center at the Dialog Corporation in Cary, N.C. She held a series of positions with increasing levels of responsibility at Dialog since May 1999. From 1993 to 1999 she held several positions in the NC State University libraries, including manager of access services, a position she held while pursuing her MLS from UNC at Chapel Hill. She also holds a bachelor’s degree in English from NC State University.

“The main attraction for me at the EPA is the opportunity to work with SILS as a professional, as well as to help promote librarianship throughout the community,” Errickson said. “Working with students who will benefit from the incredible learning experience the EPA has to offer will help me feel like I am giving back to a community that has helped me immensely throughout my career."

Rogers, a cum laude graduate of NC Central University's School of Library and Information Science, brings extensive experience with the Dialog Corporation as a science and business subject specialist. She worked as an information and education services intern at Duke Medical Center Library and as a reference department intern for Duke's Perkins Library while pursuing her MLS. She has an undergraduate degree from Wesleyan University in anthropology and sociology and has done post-baccalaureate study in biology and chemistry at UNC-Asheville.

Under its contract with the EPA, SILS staff members help direct an internship program through which 11 to 15 graduate students are employed at the EPA Library and the National Institute of Environmental Health Science (NIEHS) Library. Since the special partnership formed in 1974, more than 300 master’s students have interned at either the NIEHS or the EPA libraries. SILS is the only school to hold an agreement of this type with the federal government. The partnership gives a high level of service to the agency while providing students a chance to apply what they are learning in class, to gain professional-level experience and to acquire a better understanding of career options.