By Associate Professor Miriam Conteh-Morgan, Freetown, Sierra Leone
I am beyond proud to have been appointed the first female Deputy Vice-Chancellor of the Institute of Public Administration and Management (IPAM), one of the three constituent colleges of University of Sierra Leone. And the first librarian in SL to lead a campus.
When I left Ohio State University in 2013 to be IPAM’s campus librarian, I embraced the philosophy that the library should be more than just a support unit, that it ought to be given the opportunity to lead campus-wide initiatives. We pushed through ideas that led to some systemic changes in, for example, the promotion process. These gave greater visibility to the breadth of skills librarians have and led to more of their involvement in university governance and projects. I’ve also made international conference presentations on the topic under sexy(?) titles like "Leading from the l/edge" or "When the supporting cast plays the lead," arguing this case. From new course development to being project lead on a major pillar of the University’s reengineering drive and serving as assistant head of campus for six years, I did them all.
Here I am now.
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