Getting to Know You: FHSLA welcomes new member Rita Vine

Rita Vine, MLS

 What is your current role in the library field?  
     I'm a consultant, and I specialize in stakeholder interviewing -- where I conduct and analyze confidential interviews with key stakeholders in an organization, and then present the summary information to the client. So far my work has been in the university sector, but I'm hoping to expand this year.   
     I recently left the University of Toronto, the largest university in Canada, after a long library career.  Starting in 2017, my partner and I spend half the year in St. Petersburg, where we have a home. We have fallen so head over heels in love with St. Pete that we're planning to relocate here for the next 3-5 years.   
     My job at Toronto was Head of Faculty and Student Engagement. I liked to say that my office was the "voice of faculty and students to the library, and the voice of the library to faculty and students."  I was liaison to non-departmentalized offices on campus (like Research Services, Student Services and the various vice-presidents and provosts on campus).  In addition to my university work, I developed the Association of Research Libraries' project Reimagining the Library Liaison, a toolkit  to help liaison librarians connect more deeply with their academic departments. 
     Prior to this, I was a health sciences and medicine librarian at the University of Toronto.  I was very involved in medical education of physicians and physician assistants and served as liaison librarian in many medical subjects. 

What were your most influential past roles? 
​     Wow, that's so hard to say.  I'd say I'm proudest of 2 projects:  Reimagining the Library Liaison, which continues to have traction in academic libraries, and the U of Toronto's Personal Librarian Project, the largest of its kind in North America (over 6000 first year students), which I launched several years ago and continues today. 

Do you have a specialization or interest area within the library field?
     I love working in communications and helping organizations better understand how their customers, users, funders, and (sometimes) their competitors really feel about them.

What is something happening in libraries now that you find exciting?
     I'm incredibly proud of the way public libraries in larger urban centers have responded to their communities and have become great hubs of support and resources for their local populations.  They have become partners with education, housing, healthcare, local government, the arts, and more. Far from being considered obsolete, the greatest public libraries are busier than ever. 

Do you have any hobbies?
     I'm a competitive swing dancer and a completely uncompetitive pickleball player. But I'm trying.
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I am currently reading or would like to read: 
     I'm half way through Marcia Chatelain's "Franchise: The Golden Arches in Black America"  and I've just ordered Amanda Levitt's book Can I Ask You A Question? - 150 questions to deepen conversations.  

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