John Tombarge Earns Outstanding Librarian Award The professor and resource librarian received the honor from the Capital Area Business Academic Librarians.

By Brian Laubscher
March 27, 2025

John Tombarge, professor and reference librarian at Washington and Lee University, received the 2024 Capital Area Business Academic Librarians (CABAL) Outstanding Librarian Award at the organization’s annual meeting, held virtually on June 11.

Tombarge was presented the third annual award by the CABAL Awards & Recognition Committee for his steadfast work and influence on the CABAL organization as secretary and member of the association’s Steering Committee. The letters of support for the award noted Tombarge’s willingness to share the knowledge he has gained from his many years as a librarian, as well as his ability to strengthen relations and connections among the association’s membership. One nomination described him as the CABAL’s “voice of reason.”

“CABAL is made up of my closest professional colleagues, who all serve as business librarians, and it is a tremendous honor to be recognized by them in this way,” said Tombarge. “We all work hard to support each other through CABAL in this demanding field, and I am humbled to be singled out for this award.”

Tombarge first joined the university in 1996 as reference librarian and head of circulation services, serving as head librarian from 2013 to 2020. His work experience also includes five years in the university libraries at Virginia Tech.

In addition to his campus activities, Tombarge served as chair of the Virginia Independent College and University Library Association and as a member of the Virtual Library of Virginia (VIVA) Steering Committee, the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia (SCHEV) Library Advisory Committee and the Lever Press Oversight Committee. He also participated in the Association of College and Research Libraries/Harvard Leadership Institute, the Frye Leadership Institute, and the Snowbird Leadership Institute. He is a past winner of the Yankee Book Peddler Award from the Virginia Library Association and is a member of Beta Phi Mu, the international honor society for library and information science.

A member of both the American Library Association and the Association of College and Research Librarians, Tombarge is the author of numerous articles in professional journals and co-author of a book chapter on using the Internet to teach library literacy skills. He holds a B.S. and B.A. degrees from Virginia Tech and an MLS from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro.

Created in 2015, the CABAL group provides academic librarians in the District of Columbia, Delaware, Maryland and Virginia with opportunities to collaborate on, learn about and share business discipline-focused resources and services.

If you know a W&L faculty member who has done great, accolade-worthy things, tell us about them! Nominate them for an accolade.