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Rita Vine Appointed ARL Visiting Program Officer for Reimagining the Library Liaison

Rita Vine

The Association of Research Libraries (ARL) has named Rita Vine as a visiting program officer (VPO) for its reimagining the library liaison initiative from July 2017 through June 2018. Vine is the head of faculty and student engagement at the University of Toronto Libraries in Toronto, Canada.

In her role as VPO for the reimagining the library liaison initiative, Vine will synthesize recent data and insights on how liaisons and managers perceive liaison roles, and will produce content for a shareable, open source tool kit. She will further work with ARL program staff to monitor, review, and adjust the content of ongoing liaison institutes to enhance their value to both liaisons and their supervisors.

“The Association of Research Libraries deeply appreciates that Rita Vine has agreed to take on this assignment and that the University of Toronto Libraries are supporting her in this role,” said Elliott Shore, ARL executive director. “In the coming year, Rita will continue her fine work reimagining the library liaison for the 21st-century research library.”

As the head of faculty and student engagement at the University of Toronto, Vine coordinates the liaison librarian and information literacy initiatives across the library system, and liaises directly with the library’s strategic partners on campus. Vine’s portfolio has allowed her to be closely involved with both staff development and outreach in teaching and learning, research, liaison reorganization, and assessment. She is also an experienced trainer and facilitator.

Vine has been active in the ARL community, especially in the area of liaison professional development, since 2014. She has collaborated with Barbara Rockenbach (Columbia), Kornelia Tancheva (Pittsburgh), Judy Ruttenberg (ARL), and Elizabeth Waraksa (ARL) on programming for library liaisons and their supervisors at meetings of the American Library Association, and she co-authored the final report of ARL’s pilot library liaison institute, released in December 2015.

“I’m grateful to the University of Toronto Libraries for their support of this initiative, and delighted to serve as an ARL visiting program officer,” said Vine. “Working with ARL colleagues to empower library liaisons for 21st-century research, teaching, and learning has been tremendously rewarding, and I am pleased to be able to focus even more on the needs and challenges facing both library liaisons and their managers in the year to come.”

The ARL VPO program provides opportunities for outstanding staff members at ARL member libraries to contribute to special projects and programs, either in whole or in part, in order to advance the agenda of the Association. Visit the ARL website for more information about ARL’s Visiting Program Officer program.


About the Association of Research Libraries

The Association of Research Libraries (ARL) is a nonprofit organization of 123 research libraries in the US and Canada. ARL’s mission is to influence the changing environment of scholarly communication and the public policies that affect research libraries and the diverse communities they serve. ARL pursues this mission by advancing the goals of its member research libraries, providing leadership in public and information policy to the scholarly and higher education communities, fostering the exchange of ideas and expertise, facilitating the emergence of new roles for research libraries, and shaping a future environment that leverages its interests with those of allied organizations. ARL is on the web at ARL.org.

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