Wishing you good health and happiness!

Hi Pam

Many thanks for your support over the years - for your encouragement and belief in me! I moved from WM libraries for two years and developed my learning in an HE quality environment - I followed what you saw in me (and what I couldn't) and now I'm in my ideal role of e-resource management!

Best of luck for your retirement - you will be missed.
Karen x

All the very best

All the very best. I'm sure the Best Is yet To Be and I look forward to hearing more about "What next?"

Sue Lacey Bryant

From your friends in HE

It looks like you have a pretty solid fan base in WM libraries from the entries in your blog and you will be sorely missed so on behalf of your friends in HE I would like to join the fan club.

It has been a real pleasure working with you from right back in the days of WMRLS, though The Libraries Partnership up to WM MLA and the Libraries Forum not to mention your contributions to the WM ILG. You have been a great advocate for health libraries and kept their profile to the front of all the plans we have made in those various forums. It was also helpful to have you make some sense of how health libraries worked for those of us only tangentially involved with them.

There are so many overlaps between health libraries and HE libraries that I hope someone else will take over the reins form you in helping to facilitate understanding and collaboration.

Of course other colleagues in HE might disagree but I doubt it. And if they do they can join the blog!

Very best wishes for a long and happy retirement.

Pat

All the best for a long and happy retirement!

Dear Pam

Just to wish you all the best for a long and happy retirement.
Many thanks for all the times you have lent a sympathetic ear to my accounts of crises and disasters and the way you always worked to improve the situation within our libraries.
Here's hoping any future "challenges" are more enjoyable and less stressful than the ones you have been dealing with over the years in the West Midlands.

Best wishes,

Christine Carr

Good bye and Good Luck

We wouldn't be where we are now without all your help and support over the years. Thank you Pam in believing in us!! With your gentle bullying...oops, I mean persuasion we have managed to achieve so many things to improve our services.

So thanks Pam for helping us achieve our goals, without you this would have been very difficult if not impossible.

We wish you all the very best in your retirement, you will be missed.

From the Acute Trusts in South Staffordshire,

Lyn, Natalie and Bec (STG)
Karen, Vicki and Lesley (BUR)

To the incomparable Pam

I reflect today with the greatest affection and respect on your achievements for our profession and I also remember your many kindnesses to me when I left the relatively safe (in those days!)environs of higher education and moved to a regional role in the NHS. Always positive; always supportive; always forward looking and always cheerful despite the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune just sums you up for me Pam.

Your generosity in thinking of Phi at this time too is so heartening to us all in Phi and I’m deeply touched and grateful for your support. Health librarians need to make visible their role in building better health across the globe. They make a vital contribution within the spectrum of international development initiatives and programmes working in partnership with colleagues in Africa and other low resource countries. Thank you for such an encouraging recognition of Phi’s work.

Have a great party today and I wish you a very happy and fulfilling retirement; it’s a new career in itself!

With my love and all good wishes

Shane

A good development opportunity

“It will be a good development opportunity”, “It will improve your negotiating skills”, “A great CPD opportunity”. Sound familiar???

Every member of the team here has had reason to look nervous when we have heard these words leave your lips! You have come to our rescue many times with your tender but tough negotiating style, useful contacts and huge knowledge of the workings of libraries in the West Midlands but for us you are most memorable for the time and effort you have spent in suggesting, cajoling and encouraging us to step outside our comfort zone and to try something new and usually, exciting. You have taken a real and personal interest in the development of all of us and uniquely, you have also taken the time to do something about it. When we look hesitant we usually get an “of course you can” and when the goal is reached there is always a “well done” as if it were all our idea in the first place! You will be very much missed by all of the team at Shrewsbury and Telford but we do expect you to make the journey here one more time for the grand opening of our new library, whose success will be a measure of your own, very grand, leadership skills.

Have a great retirement
love
Anna, Allan, Louise, Jason, Joan, Margaret, Susan and Mark

Big thanks from the SASHA Library team

Shropshire & Staffordshire are again harnessing the latest technology with the move to a SASHA Library wiki. This is thanks to you getting us going on the e-content hub project back in 2003 when a joint NHS/HE website was just a dream!

We would like to thank you for your hard work (and all the nice lunches!) in supporting us with SASHA Library.

Best wishes from past and present members of the SASHA Library Team:

Daryl, Pam, Siobahn, Anna, Jason, Louise, Claire, Zoë, Angus, Susan, Marilyn, Linda, David, Liz, Karen, Lyn, Becs, Julie and Kelly.


PS. Watch this space for the latest SASHA Library incarnation!

Supportive Pam

Congratulations on your retirement Pam. It has been a privilege to have worked with you. I think I was very lucky to start my NHS career in a West Midlands Trust under your guidance. If not for you and Irene, I doubt I would be working where I am and as happy with my career as I am. Between you, you established a very positive environment, and got me involved in work I may not have got into if it had been entirely voluntary... I’m referring to you getting me involved in SASHA amongst other things, and also to the way in which library services in the West Midlands are able to give their staff room and time to develop. SASHA taught me an awful lot, and working for the library at UHNS I always had the opportunity to learn new things and develop my skills and confidence.

Thanks for all your support.
Love from Angus. XX

A Team Player with Added Value

Dear Pam,

Here in Oswestry, we have taken the opportunity of a fold in the fabric of time to do some blue sky thinking on your achievements over the years in the West Midlands.

The consensus is that:

• You have never hesitated to leave your comfort zone in order to push the envelope into new matrix ways of working.
• You have always been proactive in thinking outside the box, and have been able to scope a ball park figure and refresh a strategy whenever necessary.
• You have never retreated into your silo, and possess the enviable knack of making communication more transparent.
• Your ability to project manage a seamless service has meant that the West Midlands Health Libraries Network has become a benchmark of excellence for joined-up working.

It’s all smoke and mirrors to us, but seriously, we’d like to thank you for all your help and encouragement over the years, and we wish you a happy and well-earned retirement. We will miss you (and your entertaining turn of phrase!)

With love from the Francis Costello Library team,

Marie, Siobahn, Fiona & Karen

Baby boom

Dear Pam,

You've put up with the tears and the tantrums, the endless (usually sudden!) maternity leave(s) and subsequent returns of staff who seem to spend half their time gassing about whether we've "BEEN". Not only have you put up but you've understood and nurtured our Mums when they've come in distracted, sleep deprived and in need of a hug - so who's the real Mommy?

A big thank you from a few faces that also owe you A LOT .... (and a few more besides!)



Pam you are fab & enjoy your retirement!

Thanks for looking after our Mums (and Dads!)

Love from the library unit extended family xxx

You are officially priceless!

"When enthusiasm is inspired by reason; controlled by caution; sound in theory; practical in application; reflects confidence; spreads good cheer; raises morale; inspires associates, arouses loyalty; and laughs at adversity, it is beyond price."

It's been a pleasure and a priviledge to work with you. Thank you for looking after me.
Love and best wishes
Ali

There was a librarian Pam

There was a librarian Pam
She made grey literature glam
A round library with chains
Catches drips when it rains
That sassy librarian Pam

There was a librarian Pam
In combat just look out: wham!
Queen Quality Bee
Had a stats factory
That savvy librarian Pam

There was a librarian Pam
She helped me become what I am
Except not so clever
But who else could ever?
That stellar librarian Pam


By Helen Bingham

Pam, everyone in the not so sunny (today) south east has enjoyed working with you, and sharing your ideas. May your retirement be everything that you wish it to be .

Many thanks and very good wishes

David

Irreplaceable Pam!

Pam,

Generally, I avoid blogging but this is a special one for a special person and I think it’s a brilliant idea by Bertha. The 21^st century sticky label – love it! It has been an honour and a privilege to work with such a smashing person over the years. You are absolutely indominatable and you never EVER give up. In the early 90s, we worked together with Val and with our colleagues from WRLIS and SWeHSLinC to make ‘probably the best health care library network in the country’. I think that you and Val set the trends that other networks followed up in the years that were to follow.

I have happy memories of the gentle art of persuading the odd Dean or two, that the best destination for surplus money is a LIBRARY. I think our network libraries did well out of PGMDE didn’t they! We were always thinking of brilliant ways to spend non-recurring dosh and (bit by bit) we managed to get more money into the SW health library economy. We also had some big scary battles with the odd Deanery Rottweiller but I think we usually won (although the Rottweiller didn’t know it). Your political antennae and canny sense of strategy was a delight. We also did loads of work with statistics and also with the first generation of library accreditation schemes, with Maggie Haines’ help.

When you moved to the West Midlands with your job, I was so impressed at your stamina for travelling and for hot desking. You are the most resourceful and resilient person that I have ever encountered. You’ve continued to do brilliant things in WM and I’ve watched from a distance and just marvelled at what you take in your stride as a day job. You are caring and compassionate and I don’t reckon that some of the librarians over the years had even the slightest idea of how much hard work you put in behind the scenes to improve the lot of the Trust librarian.

Your contribution to NHS librarianship and to wider health care librarianship over your career has been absolutely outstanding and you have always given the most fantastic contribution whether it was local, regional or national level. A lot of people would not be where they are in the profession without your encouragement and mentorship role.

I hope that you and Laurie have a peaceful and contented time back in the West Country and I hope that good things come to both of you in spades from now on, as you both really deserve it. Both of you should come down and stay with us in Wombat Monster when you have the time. Keep in touch.

Love, Chris

Congratulations!

Pam, I wish you and Laurie a contented life together in your retirement although knowing you it won’t be a sedate one!

I think my abiding memory of you Pam is your enthusiasm and positive approach. When I first joined the library unit I was full of enthusiasm for all the training I had to develop. You were supportive and encouraging and gave me the confidence to develop Project APPLE. Above all else, your approach is to see above and beyond all the hurdles that inevitably pop up. You helped me and many others in the network see all the possibilities. Plus you inspired me to move to Bridgnorth – what was my piddly commute next to yours!!

Best wishes to you Pam. Love Rachel.

Congratulations!

Pam,

Congratulations on your retirement. It was great to work with you. Enjoy being a lady of leisure, it certainly seems to suit the others that have retired recently.

Best Wishes

Louise Goswami

Pets Corner

Here’s one for Joshy..

All our pets appreciate how much interest you take in them. They didn’t want you to go without having the opportunity to say goodbye, so they have asked us to put this blog message together.


Dear Pam,

Thanks for keeping me in cat food! can you guess my owner by my colouring?

Tim xxx

Dear Pam

Thanks for always asking about me. As you can see over the last year I have grown from a little dot into a very happy big boy cat now! (saying that I am not very happy at the moment as the humans looking after me are putting me into the cattery for 3 weeks!!)

Goodbye and best wishes, Alfie xxx

Pam and the Jobsworth Car Parking Attendant

PamJust wanted to add congratulations on behalf of the Libraries at Sandwell and City Hospital and to say a personal thanks for all the support and encouragement you have given me over the last few years.I just wanted to share a recent experience of the scary Pam during an accreditation visit to our Trust a few months ago.We were all waiting in trepidation (as you do) for the visit to take place and for Pam's arrival. Knowing how friendly she always is I had no real worries until she burst through the library doors like a person demented. She had just experienced a jobsworth car parking attendant who would not let her through the barrier to park, consequently she had had to reverse and had pranged her car on the ticket issue post - I have never seen anyone so furious, curisng the fact we had not informed her of the changes to the car parking since the last accreditation and demanding a complaints form (which we had no idea how to get - but soon found out).Well to say she scared the entire staff was an understatment and the day was spent trying not to upset her any more. We even considered having a whip round for repairs but we all know what NHS salaries are like and I don't think we could have raised enough for a car wash let alone anything else.we honestly thought we had blown our hopes of getting a level 3. But true to your professionalism Pam we did (You obviously recognise quality when you see it). The sigh of relief after you left was clearly audible across the Trust if not the entire Black Country. However there will be no such sigh at the end of June when you leave us - you shall be missed by one and all.Have a good lifeSue and Jessica

Pam & West Mids groups

Pam,

I shall miss your contribution to West Mids Libraries Forum and Inspire MOG

You were always enthusiastic and had good points to make



Enjoy your retirement



Kate G

Enjoy - you deserve it!

Hi Pam

I've come out of retirement and joined my first blog just for you! So you're finally joining the ranks of us "retireds". Knowing you, you'll wonder how you ever had time to work, you'll find so much to do just like I have. Do enjoy your retirement though, because if anyone deserves it, you do!

I guess you and me go back as far as anyone - dare I mention that it was 1979! It was in the days when we had to pull ourselves up with our bootlaces (or go unnoticed), and if anyone encouraged the libraries in the South West to do that, it was you. Thank you so much on behalf of everyone in the then SWEHSLinC for all your leadership and encouragement: for putting libraries into the mind of the Regional Health Authority, for leading us into the world of union catalogues, computers and later the Internet, quality standards and accreditation and so much, much more that people who weren't around at the time will never know about. You gave yourself and often much of your own time. You so deserved your regional post in the West Midlands and you have applied the same vision and energy to that role, at both national and regional level. I guess most people reading this will know about those contributions to libraryland so I won't bore you with them. Thanks also for understanding my limitations on travel in latter years and arranging the RLG/LKDN Quality Group so I could still attend - one of your great skills is enabling others!

I'm sure you are going to be missed so much by so many people in so many ways as your contribution to health libraries has been enormous. But thankyou so much, and enjoy your retirement - you can go in the satisfaction of a job well done!

Love and best wishes, Val

I'll miss the mess...

Hi Pam,

I will miss your messy desk. I will miss it when you come in all annoyed about something that needs sorting out. I will miss you when you are in a frivolous mood and also when you are in an "Action Pam" mood. I will miss the your trust and encouragement. I will miss you very much but mostly I will miss sharing a laugh and a smile with you across the (messy) desks.

Thanks for being an amazing boss. April xxx