In Memoriam

Bobby came to Fort Worth in March of 1978 to take the position of Library Director for the Texas College of Osteopathic Medicine (TCOM). A native of Baytown, Texas who received his bachelor’s degree from the University of Houston and his master’s in library science degree from Louisiana State University, Bobby’s library career included positions in the University of Texas Medical Branch Library, the College of Pharmacy Library at the University of Houston, and the Louisiana State University Library. Immediately prior to coming to Fort Worth, he served as Medical Center Librarian in the Dahlgren Memorial Library, Georgetown University Medical Center in Washington. D.C. His service as library director for TCOM and the University of North Texas Health Science Center began with his hiring in 1978 and lasted through his retirement in January 2009.

Once Bobby returned to his home state, he set about hiring a strong professional library staff and getting the library physically established in a beautiful space in TCOM’s Medical Education I building (now EAD). In the early 1980’s, he was a leader of the project to design and build a separate library building. Initially known as the Medical Education III building, it was completed and occupied in October of 1986. It still serves as home for the Gibson D. Lewis Health Science Library and remains a symbol that the small medical school that was started in Fort Worth could be a full-range health science center with a robust research enterprise.

In his 31 years leading Lewis Library, Bobby grew the library and its staff to levels befitting its standing as an information hub for the University of North Texas Health Science Center. The staff of 40 ran a robust operation that covered all areas of library work required for modern service of a health-focused university as it moved into the 21st century. Numerous innovations were rolled out on Bobby’s watch, including the state’s first fax-based health information network that served clinicians across North Texas. Of special note in 1986, Lewis Library was the 3rd library in Texas to adopt the minicomputer-based integrated library system LIS which was developed at the Georgetown University medical library. During Bobby’s tenure as director, Lewis Library maintained modern, robust technology labs for student use along with large collections of much-needed audiovisual learning aids. As the school’s curriculum and technology advanced, the library’s audiovisual resources and media rooms were subsumed by computer teaching labs.

Bobby was an active participant in the professional medical library community of the United States. He authored numerous articles on library operations and was an active member of the Medical Library Association, the American Library Association, and the

Association of University Professors. His most well-known activity, however, came through his 25-year term as Treasurer of the South Central Academic Medical Libraries (SCAMeL) consortium. SCAMeL is an institutional membership organization for medical libraries serving institutions that award an MD or DO degree and are located in Arkansas, Louisiana, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Texas. Bobby’s stewardship of SCAMeL’s funds provided a solid foundation for the group’s activities to support the educational, resource, and research needs of the member libraries and their librarians. SCAMeL certainly owes Bobby a debt of gratitude for his financial work over the years.

While Bobby’s intellectual and professional contributions to his home library and other medical libraries across the region were prodigious, those who know him best will always remember him as a bon vivant, elite dancer, convener of card games in his conference room, and co-coordinator of the Armadillo Ball, a soirée held every year at the annual conference of the Medical Library Association. Knowledge of the party’s site was divulged only to members of the South Central Chapter (SCC) and their friends (designated by wearing the coveted Armadillo Pin). It became widely popular as an opportunity for SCC librarians to connect with each other and close colleagues outside of work and have a night of fun. Thanks in great part to Bobby’s efforts, the Armadillo Ball was truly important in building a sense of community among the region’s medical librarians and boosting the chapter’s scholarship funds through the sale of Armadillo pins.

The Bobby we remember and honor was a great administrator who made a difference for his library, institution, and profession through his entrepreneurial spirit and cheerful personality. He helped set the foundation for the work that happens today in medical libraries in Texas and the surrounding states. Thanks for that, Bobby! Now, could we please have one more Armadillo Ball ....

Dan Burgard & Craig Elam

1978

• The first permanent building on the TCOM campus, Medical Education Building I, opens, consolidating the basic science and clinical teaching programs in Fort Worth on eight floors, as well as the library and administrative offices. The Library moves from its temporary quarters in leased space on the River Plaza campus at Merrimac Circle to the seventh floor of Med Ed I. 
• In April, Medical Education Building III, a 58,236 sq. ft building housing the Library, Administration, and Biomedical Communications is added to the campus master plan.

1982

• The TCOM Library establishes the first telefacsimile network in the state, providing immediate patient care information to three teaching hospitals.
• In June, the TCOM Medical Library’s name is changed to “Health Science” Library.

1983

• The newly formed South Central Academic Medial Libraries (SCAMeL) consortium, composed of the library directors of the medical degree-granting institutions in the region, met for the first time at the SCC annual meeting in Dallas.

1984

• Groundbreaking is held Sept. 7 for the third major building on campus, Medical Education Building III, designed to be a freestanding, four-story building that would be the home of the Library and related units.

1986

• The fifteenth annual SCC meeting was highlighted by a trip to the new Texas College of Osteopathic Medicine Library building, although still unfinished.
• Medical Education Building III, opens December 1, housing a state-of-the-art library, computing services, and biomedical communications operations. Faculty and students help the library move 50,000 volumes from its former location on the 7th floor of ME I and a storage annex.

1988

• ME III, the Health Science Library building, is dedicated on Feb. 26, 1988.
• For the first time, a computer literacy requirement is required for incoming TCOM students. The library develops two Computer Literacy courses to instruct students in the use of LIS, database searching, and a variety of computer software.
• Two rooms are renovated to create a Microcomputer Teaching Laboratory (Rm. 3-410) in the library’s top-floor Learning Resource Center (LRC) with state-of-the-art projection equipment and 25 networked IBM and Apple Macintosh computers. In addition, the LRC is equipped with 20 individual carrels and microcomputers for non-instructional use.

1989

• The Library expands it service role as the first information services contracts are established with three community hospitals.
• The Records Management Program is established in the Library under Wayne Schull to identify, control, and preserve institutional documents.

1990

• The Library is designated a Resource Library in the National Network of Libraries of Medicine, established by the National Library of Medicine to facilitate resource sharing among medical libraries nationwide.
• The Library becomes the administrative and financial headquarters of the South Central Academic Medical Libraries (SCAMeL), a five-state consortium of medical school libraries.

1991

• The Library expands its support of community physicians through the use of NLM’s Grateful Med for online searching and Loansome Doc for document delivery.
• The Library hosts its first CE workshop for local and regional medical librarians.

1992

• The Library is awarded the contract to manage the South Central Academic Medical Libraries (SCAMeL) Union List of Serials.

1993

• On December 3, the library is formally dedicated as the Gibson D. Lewis Health Science Library in honor of Gibson “Gib” Lewis, the Tarrant County legislator and Speaker of the Texas House of Representatives, who was a leader in gaining state support for the institution’s plan to build a free-standing library building.
• The Library adopts Ariel to provide document delivery through digital transmission of documents over the Internet.

1997

• In March, the Library recommends adding an Associate Director for Bioinformatics and instructional technologist positions in the library to provide academic computing support to faculty and students.
• In July, the Library proposes creation of an integrated information resources team, consisting of the Library, Information Technology Services, and Biomedical Communications, under a single vice president

1999

• In March, the second-floor reference area was renovated to create a 25-station Computer Teaching Laboratory in Room 225.

2000

• In August, the Library and Information Technology Services units were combined to form the Division of Information Resources. This would report to Bobby R. Carter, as the new Associate Vice President for Information Resources and Director of Library Services.

2001

• In July, study alcoves on the third and fourth floors are converted into six large group study/classrooms (Rooms 3-302, 304, 318, 320, 434, and 462).

2002

• OSTMED®, the world's first comprehensive index to the literature of osteopathic medicine, is inaugurated. The Lewis Library developed the database under a five-year, $385,000 contract from the American Osteopathic Association and the American Association of Colleges of Osteopathic Medicine.
• In November, a Task Force on the Next Generation Library, composed of a consultant, and faculty, student, and community representatives, is created to evaluate the future of the library.

2003

• In September, preliminary planning for a new integrated library system to replace LIS is begun and funding sought.

2004

• In February, the Task Force on the Next Generation Library received the consultant’s final report and the Library’s response, followed by focus groups to evaluate Collections, Services, and Facilities, and presented its recommendations in a final report in May. A Dean’s Response in October precedes the Task Force’s dismissal in December.

2005

• The III Millennium system goes live on July 7, 2005, with the automated purchasing interface with EIS completed by September.
• The Library expands its clinical information services through UNT Health’s agreement with the Tarrant County Hospital District to provide clinical services to John Peter Smith Hospital and the JPS Health Network.

2006

• The Library’s clinical information services expands again as the University of North Texas Physicians Group adds approximately 100 new clinical faculty members from the North Texas Affiliated Medical Group, creating the largest physician group in Tarrant County.

2008

• The Library helps establish library services, including a physical collection of books and journals in The Center for Cancer and Blood Disorders in Fort Worth.