Winston Tabb begins term as Board Chair

January 13, 2015

Winston Tabb
Winston Tabb

Effective January 1, 2015, Winston Tabb, Sheridan Dean of University Libraries and director of Sheridan Libraries at Johns Hopkins University, began his term as chair of the Board of the Academic Preservation Trust.  Before coming to Johns Hopkins in September 2002, he had been associate librarian at the Library of Congress. Since his arrival at Johns Hopkins, Tabb has accepted additional assignments as dean of the university’s museums.

As dean of the libraries, Tabb directs the integration of new information technologies throughout the university’s libraries and, as head of the University Libraries Council, leads and coordinates Johns Hopkins’ entire system of libraries, which includes the Welch Medical Library and its satellite libraries; the Mason Library at the Nitze School of Advanced International Studies in Washington, D.C.; the Friedheim Library at the Peabody Conservatory; and libraries at the Johns Hopkins regional campuses and centers for part-time study in Washington, D.C.; Rockville, Md.; Columbia, Md.; and downtown Baltimore.

He is also director of the Sheridan Libraries, which include the Milton S. Eisenhower Library at the Homewood campus; the George Peabody Library at Mount Vernon Place in Baltimore; the John Work Garrett Library at Evergreen Museum & Library; and the Hutzler Undergraduate Reading Room at Homewood. Tabb also is dean of the university’s museums, overseeing Homewood Museum and Evergreen Museum & Library. Both are open to the public for tours, arts exhibitions, concerts and other events, and both are also increasingly involved in the academic life of the university.

In July 2006, Tabb was appointed for a two-year term to the additional university-wide role of vice provost for the arts. In that position, he oversaw the implementation of the recommendations of the Homewood Arts Task Force, which he chaired, and coordinated efforts to extend its work across the university. Tabb also was charged with developing a strategy for funding arts initiatives and with building relationships with arts organizations in the greater Baltimore community.

Before coming to Johns Hopkins, Tabb had been at the Library of Congress since 1972, in a variety of roles. As associate librarian since 1992, he had managed 53 of the library’s divisions and offices with more than 2,400 employees. Within his areas of responsibility were cataloging, circulation, the reading rooms, special collections, archives, preservation and the presentation of digital materials online.

A native of Tulsa, Okla., Tabb graduated from the Oklahoma Baptist University and went to Harvard University as a Woodrow Wilson fellow, earning a master’s degree before serving in the U.S. Army as an instructor of English in Thailand. He earned his degree in library science from Simmons College in 1972 and was one of six outstanding graduates recruited that year to join the professional staff of the Library of Congress.

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