Denise Callihan has over 30+ years as a technical librarian. After receiving her MLS degree at the University of Pittsburgh, Denise started her information career at the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh’s Science and Technology Department. She then moved on to CONSOL Energy, before joining PPG in 1996 as the Chemicals R&D Librarian. Today, Denise is the Manager of the R&D Library Shared Services team, a role held since March 2002. Her group’s mission is to support PPG Science & Technology globally by providing quality information services through the efficient use of in-house, cross-group and commercial resources, to continue to serve as innovative and active partners in the research mission of PPG by facilitating search & discovery and enabling communities to manage and act on content, and lastly, to explore and implement new & innovative methods to encourage information sharing, improve productivity, foster deeper collaboration and better manage information. Denise was also responsible for creating, managing and training technology scouting at PPG focusing on open innovation practices.
Denise is an active leader in the Pittsburgh Chapter & Chemistry Division of the Special Libraries Association (SLA), co-chairs the Information Services & Information Technology Network of the Innovation Research Interchange (formerly Industrial Research Institute), an elected member of the Industrial Technical Information Managers Group (ITIMG), as well as an active alumna of the University of Pittsburgh, and a Life Member of the Pitt Alumni Association. Denise has participated as an adjunct faculty at the University of Pittsburgh teaching both library management and sci-tech resources, as well as instructor for three SLA Continuing Education courses focusing on chemistry reference resources & patent searching. In 2012, Denise was honored by SLA with the Rose L. Vormelker Award for her dedication to mentoring students and professionals.