Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden has appointed Robin L. Dale to the position of Associate Librarian for Library Services effective April 1, 2019. An accomplished, innovative and service-oriented administrator, Dale brings 25 years of experience to her new role. Dale has been a strong advocate for libraries and has expertise in library technologies, digital library service development, collection access management and preservation, library space and renovation, and personnel management. She also has extensive experience in strategic planning, developing and managing budgets, aligning initiatives with organization goals, and developing strategic partnerships.

“Robin’s background and extensive library experience make her an ideal candidate for this position. Her experience includes consulting with Congressional members and staff on legislation related to IMLS, including many issues important to the broader library community,” said Mark Sweeney, Principal Deputy Librarian of Congress. “Based on her experience, Ms. Dale will be an exceptional leader, ensuring Library Services is both a creative learning center for the public and an efficiently and effectively managed service unit of the Library of Congress”.

From May 2017 to March 2019, she served as Deputy Director, Office of Library Services at the Institute of Museum and Library Services. She directed grant activity for IMLS’ Grants to States program for more than $186 million. Using a population based formula, more than $150 million was distributed among the State Library Administrative Agencies every year. Dale also managed the discretionary grant programs, including the National Leadership Grants and the Laura Bush 21st Century Librarian programs. She was responsible for department budgets, personnel, training and travel, and represented IMLS at the federal, regional, national and international levels. She has served in various capacities for a number of national organizations including ALA, ALCTS, ARL, LITA, LLAMA, DPLA, and HathiTrust, among others. Also, between 2001 and 2008, she taught several courses in Collections Preservation and Digitization and Digital Preservation at San Jose State University, School of Library and Information Science.

Before joining IMLS, Dale was Senior Director for Digital Services for LYRASIS where she developed and implemented organizational strategy for digital programs, services, grant funding, and partnerships. Before LYRASIS, she was the Associate University Librarian for Collections and Library Information Systems at the University of California, Santa Cruz. There she managed UCSC’s participation in mass digitization projects, coordinated library technology, collections, and technical services activities, and planned the digitization and digital collection development of local, unique collections.

Prior to UCSC, she was a long-time program manager at RLG, managing collaborative programmatic activities related to digital preservation and digitization. Since 1997, her work has focused on managing technology projects, library collections initiatives, standards and best practice building activities related to creation, description, and curation of digital and analog collections.

Dale is the author of numerous articles, book chapters and papers. She holds a Master of Library & Information Science from the University of California, Berkeley, and received a Bachelor of Arts cum laude from the University of California, Riverside.

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