Farewell to Emily Stambaugh

Transitions are often bittersweet, and the one we announce today is no exception.  With some sadness at the loss of a valued colleague but also with anticipation of exciting new directions ahead, both the California Digital Library and the Western Regional Storage Trust will be saying farewell to Emily Stambaugh at the end of November as she leaves the shared print world to take the helm of the Library at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.  Emily’s last day in the office will be November 17th.

Emily’s ten-year tenure at CDL has been marked by significant transformation in the area of shared print, in no small part due to her leadership and vision.  Emily began her University of California career at UC Riverside in 2005, where she rose from social sciences bibliographer and collections analyst to interim Head of Collection Development before coming to the CDL in 2007 as Manager of Shared Print.  Emily quickly became a key actor in the evolving landscape of shared print activities both at the UC Libraries and within the broader library community, working to develop standards and infrastructure that have helped to make this sphere of library activity both more programmatically visible and more robust.  Most notably, Emily played a seminal part in the formation and development of the Western Regional Storage Trust (WEST), a project for which CDL serves as the administrative host – making major contributions during its planning grant phase in 2009, later serving as Assistant Project Manager during the initial 3-year implementation grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and subsequently being appointed WEST Program Manager in October 2013.  With nearly 70 member libraries in the Western region of the U.S. and more than 650,000 volumes distributed across 45 archive holding libraries, WEST has been one of the largest and most influential programs for shared journal collection management in the country and has served as a model for many similar efforts.  As Program Manager for WEST, Emily has taken the program from start-up to sustainability, guiding the transition from grant funding to becoming fully member-supported.  Her contributions to the WEST partnership have been extensive and wide-ranging, including development of its risk-based collections model, the expanded use of analytical tools to support largescale decision-making, and oversight of governance and strategic planning. Characteristically, Emily also envisioned and sought out opportunities to collaborate with the burgeoning network of regional shared journal programs elsewhere in the U.S., outreach that has been instrumental in the formation of the nascent Rosemont Shared Print Alliance.   An articulate and passionate spokesperson for the affordances and opportunities inherent in the collective collection, Emily has spoken and consulted widely on shared print topics in North America and beyond.

Closer to home, Emily’s efforts in her UC Shared Print role (which she has continued to hold along with her WEST position) have been no less impactful.  She was a member of the planning group for the HathiTrust Shared Print Monographs Project and has represented UC on that initiative’s Advisory Committee as it moves from planning to implementation.   UC’s own shared print projects, such as the UC-JSTOR Print Repository Program, the more recent UC Journal Archiving Campaigns, and the development of a UC shared print roadmap, have also flourished under her leadership.

While Emily’s departure will leave a large gap in the shared print domain – at UC, in WEST, and in the larger sphere of collective collections  – I know she will make a difference in the world of information management wherever opportunity leads her.  Emily, I speak for all of your colleagues in wishing you the utmost success in your new position and in all your future endeavors.

Ivy Anderson, CDL’s Associate Executive Director and Director of Collection Development and Management, will assume Emily’s WEST and UC Shared Print duties on an interim basis and will work with WEST and UC governance committees to craft the next phase of leadership for these initiatives, ably assisted by Alison Wohlers, CDL and WEST Shared Print Operations and Collections Analyst.  Please feel free to contact either Ivy (ivy.anderson@ucop.edu) or Alison (alison.wohlers@ucop.edu) with any questions or concerns as the need arises.