Dear colleagues,
It gives us great pleasure to announce that Heather Berringer, Chief Librarian at the University of British Columbia (UBC) Okanagan Campus has been appointed Associate Provost, Learning Services for the campus.
Heather Berringer, UBC Okanagan Chief Librarian and Associate Provost, Learning Services
In this new role, Heather will provide leadership in the planning, development, and coordination of an integrated vision for learning services for UBC Okanagan. This will involve harnessing synergies between different campus entities such as the Library, the Centre for Teaching and Learning, makerspace UBCO, and other student learning supports.
Heather has been Chief Librarian at the University of British Columbia (UBC) Okanagan Campus since 2014. Throughout this time, Heather has led the development of new programs, spaces, and innovative partnerships that have significantly enhanced the learning experience at UBC Okanagan and established the Library as a thriving nexus of scholarly engagement for faculty and researchers.
Heather’s collaborative and inclusive approach to librarianship has led to unique initiatives that reach beyond campus to the broader community. The UBC Innovation Library, which is embedded in the Kelowna branch of the Okanagan Regional Library, provides access to millions of UBC’s electronic resources for the general public, as well as local and visiting entrepreneurs, and community researchers. Building on this successful partnership, Heather brought the Okanagan Regional Library to campus and opened the UBCO public branch of ORL in 2018. Through her leadership and support, the Library’s reach now extends across the southern interior of the province, through the work of the Digitized Okanagan History project, to local museums and archives.
During her tenure as Chief Librarian, Heather’s commitment to the student experience and outstanding leadership are perhaps best exemplified in the development of the new Commons building, a much-anticipated multi-million-dollar expansion to the Library which opened at the beginning of 2019. A state-of-the-art space for teaching and learning, the Commons is the flagship building on the UBC Okanagan campus and signals an exciting new era for all those who study, teach and visit the UBCO campus.
Please join us in congratulating Heather on her new role here at UBC Okanagan.
Prof. Ananya Mukherjee-Reed
Provost and Vice-Principal Academic
UBC Okanagan