Mary Blanchard, MLIS, Announces Retirement

Mary Blanchard, MLIS, Library Director of the Alumni Medical Library, has announced her plans to retire as of Aug. 31.

Mary obtained her Bachelor of Science degree at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst in Food & Resource Economics and worked in healthcare nutrition services prior to embarking on a library career. She received her Master’s degree in Library and Information Science from Simmons College in 1995. Prior to joining our community, Mary worked at the Simmons College School of Social Work Library, Northeastern University’s Snell Library, and Boston University’s Mugar Library.

Since 1996, Mary has held various positions at the Alumni Medical Library including Education & Information Services Librarian, Head of Circulation & Information Services Librarian, and Associate Director for Library Services. She also was grant Project Director for the National Library of Medicine’s Mental Health Information Network of Metro Boston and the National Network of Libraries of Medicine (NN/LM) Mental Health Information Outreach Project.

She was appointed Library Director in 2008 and has overseen preparations for three renovations resulting in a 220-seat dual-purpose Testing Center/student study space on L-11, improved student study space on L-12, and a Quiet Study floor on L-13 complete with increased seating. Facilitating renovations required transitioning library materials from print-based to extensive collections of electronic journals, electronic books, and databases all of which are web-based and accessible 24/7.

During Ms. Blanchard’s tenure, the number of MLS-prepared librarians serving the medical campus increased to support a wider array of Library Education and expanded services including systematic reviews and bibliometrics support, Intellectual Property and academic publishing, and digitization of medical campus publications, theses and dissertations in OpenBU. The Alumni Medical Library also participated in a Research Data Management Librarian Academy (RDMLA) educational collaboration with Simmons University, area health sciences libraries and Elsevier, and in an Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) funded grant offering a Post-master’s Inter-Professional Informationist Certificate Program with Simmons University and a group of East and West coast health sciences libraries.

A search committee will be formed for the Library Director position and Mary has agreed to be flexible on her retirement date to provide transition support for a newly hired director.

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