Over the next month leading up to UMB’s commencement on May 18, The Elm will feature stories on the ceremony’s student speaker and honorees. For more information, go to UMB’s Commencement 2023 website. Read about all the honorees at this link.
HONORARY UNIVERSITY MARSHAL
M.J. Tooey, MLS, AHIP, FMLA
Former Associate Vice Provost and Dean
Health Sciences and Human Services Library
M.J. Tooey, who contributed 36½ years of service to the University of Maryland, Baltimore (UMB) and the Health Sciences and Human Services Library (HSHSL), says there were very few mornings during her tenure “when I didn’t pretty much spring out of bed to get to work.”
“There was so much interesting work to do,” says Tooey, who retired from UMB in December 2022. “During my career, libraries and my profession evolved from print to digital to data — and I got to see it all. In 1986, UMB was quite a different place; however, one could feel it was an institution on the cusp of tremendous growth.”
Before being named associate vice provost and dean, Tooey served as associate vice president of academic affairs and executive director of HSHSL. Among her numerous roles, she was the principal investigator and director of the Network of the National Library of Medicine’s Region 1 and the Network Web Services Office under a cooperative agreement with the National Library of Medicine. HSHSL has served in this prestigious capacity for more than 35 years.
Tooey served as president of the Medical Library Association (MLA) from 2005-2006, is an MLA fellow, and is a distinguished member of the Academy of Health Information Professionals. She received the MLA Estelle Brodman Award as Academic Medical Librarian of the Year in 1997 and was the MLA Janet Doe Lecturer in 2016. In 2019, she received the Marcia C. Noyes Award, the association’s highest honor.
Tooey says being named executive director of HSHSL in 2004 and dean in 2022 was “humbling.”
“What an honor to have the trust of the leadership of UMB, and what an honor to work with the extraordinary team at the library in a leadership role, never taking for granted my responsibility to work with them and lead them,” she said.
She also is proud of serving as the project manager for the construction of the HSHSL building from 1992 until its opening in April 1998.
“The opportunity to imagine a building not only for that time but for the future — and the added privilege of working with talented architects, engineers, construction workers, and members of the UMB team — was extraordinary,” Tooey said.
She has served on the MLA Board of Directors, the MLA/Association of Academic Health Sciences Libraries (AAHSL) Joint Legislative Task Force, and the Future of MLA Task Force. She also was AAHSL president from 2012-2013 and has served on its Board of Directors.
Tooey also served on numerous committees and task forces at UMB focused on strategic planning, scholarly communication, translational science, research data, leadership, women’s empowerment, and the arts and culture.