Wabash College Dean Raymond B. Williams has announced the appointment of John Lamborn as the new head librarian at Wabash’s Lilly Library. Lamborn will replace Larry Frye, who came to Wabash in 1980 and is retiring at the end of the academic year.
Lamborn is currently the assistant dean for public services at the Ohio University Libraries. He earned his bachelor’s degree in history from the University of Idaho, a master’s degree in history from Utah State, and his master’s degree in library science from the University of Arizona.
"Lilly Library is near the center of the mall on the Wabash campus because of its importance to student learning and faculty research. We are pleased to have a person of John Lamborn’s experience come to facilitate that essential work," said Dean Williams.
Lamborn spent the bulk of his career at Utah’s Weber State University, where he was special collections librarian from 1985-1990; interim university librarian from 1991-1992; automation librarian from 1993-96; and systems and access services librarian from 1992-2004. He held faculty rank of associate professor at Weber State.
In 2004, he was named the assistant dean for public services at Ohio University, where he has served over all public aspects of the University’s libraries. His responsibilities included the archives and special collections; the Center for International Collections; circulation services; the Fine Arts Library; government documents; reference and instructional services; and interlibrary loan functions. In that capacity he supervised 10 department heads, 50 employees, and 60 student assistants.
Lamborn served as co-chair of the Utah Library Association Conference Committee and previously chaired the Systems Committee of the Utah Academic Library Consortium. He is a member of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, the Association of College and Research Libraries, and OhioLINK. He also served as a volunteer for the 2002 Olympic Games in Salt Lake City.
"I’m thrilled about the energy and range of experience John Lamborn will bring to the position, said Religion Professor Bill Placher, who chaired the search committee. "As his day of interviews went on, one could see him getting more excited about Wabash every minute."
Wabash’s Lilly Library was built in 1959 and remodeled and expanded in 1991. It contains 431,942 books, periodicals, and government documents. Lilly Library houses a state-of-the-art media center and computer lab for student and faculty use. The Robert T. Ramsay, Jr. Archival Center provides a climate-controlled environment for the records of the College as well as other documents chronicling over a century and a half of Indiana history.