Renae Barger, MLIS

Renae Barger, MLIS, is associate vice chancellor for Health Sciences Library System (HSLS). In this position, she is responsible for the leadership and administration of the library's services and collections to support all six schools within the Schools of the Health Sciences: Dental Medicine, Health and Rehabilitation Sciences, Medicine, Nursing, Pharmacy and Public Health. Ms. Barger oversees innovation and development in the areas of user services, collections and resources, management and infrastructure, cooperative initiatives and outside funding. Additionally, she oversees the licensing and management of an extensive collection of clinical e-resources for the hospitals and facilities of UPMC, along with services to support graduate medical education programs.

Ms. Barger is a Pitt alumna, earning a BS from the School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences, an MLIS from the School of Information Sciences and a graduate certificate from the Department of Biomedical Informatics, School of Medicine. She began her career at HSLS in 2002, starting as a trainee in the Library and Biomedical Informatics Trainee Program and progressively advancing to assistant director and associate director positions. From 2011 to 2021, Ms. Barger served as executive director and then program lead for the Network of the National Library of Medicine—Middle Atlantic Region, building a highly regarded program that was recognized regionally and nationally for innovative health information outreach. From 2017 to 2021, she served as associate director for Research, Instruction, and Clinical Information Services for HSLS, providing leadership for initiatives and services that influence research, access, instruction, scholarly communication and data management.

Ms. Barger also leads the Network of the National Library of Medicine All of Us partnership between the University of Pittsburgh and the University of Iowa that leverages a team science approach to address the community engagement, training and education needs of the network’s All of Us program. She is an active member of the Association of Academic Health Sciences Libraries Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee.