After 15 years as director of Wayne State University's Shiffman Medical Library and the Learning Resources Center, Ellen Marks will be stepping down on April 30, 2008 to take a position in Wayne State's Library and Information Science Program where she will be developing online courses and continuing her research and collaboration in health information and scientific communication including continued development of Michigan Health Go Local. (www.medlineplus.gov/michigan).

Before joining Wayne State University in 1993, Marks was the director of Information Research and Development at the University of Cincinnati Medical Center and assistant professor in the School of Information Studies at the State

University of New York at Buffalo.

At the Library System, Marks was responsible for introducing a number of health information outreach programs supporting underserved communities in the Detroit area, updating the library's facility to focus on student needs leading to the conceptualization and planning for the new Richard Mazurek, M.D. Education Commons (opening in early 2009), collaboration with faculty for instructional programs in scientific communication and informatics, and the advancement of the library's move into electronic delivery of publications beginning in 1996. Marks was selected as a 2007-2008 Fellow in the Association for Research Libraries' Research Libraries Leadership Program.

"Although Ellen will be missed at the Shiffman Medical Library, we are glad that she will continue contributing to the Library System through her work with the LIS Program," said Sandra Yee, dean of the Library System. "Her continuing research will benefit not only the Library and Information Science Program but the entire community."

The Wayne State University Library System consists of the university's five libraries: The David Adamany Undergraduate Library, the Purdy/Kresge Library, the Shiffman Medical Library, the Arthur Neef Law Library and the Science and Engineering Library, the Library and Information Science Program and the Office for Teaching and Learning.

Wayne State University is a premier institution offering more than 350 academic programs through 11 schools and colleges to nearly 33,000 students.