Emily R. Novak Gustainis joined Countway Library’s Center for the History in Medicine in 2009, serving as Collections Services Archivist and Head, Collections Services before being appointed Deputy Director in 2016. In her role, Gustainis provides leadership and strategic oversight for the Center’s programmatic areas, including acquisitions, collections services, records management, and research and instruction. Her professional interests include innovating and improving access to history of medicine and public health collections, integrated approaches to special collections, archives, and museum management, and holdings assessments for special collections and archives.
Prior to 2009, Gustainis's professional appointments include Librarian/Archivist for Historic New England and Archivist, Information and Archival Services Division of the Winthrop Group, Inc., where she surveyed, arranged, and described collections for a wide variety of corporate and nonprofit clients. Gustainis holds both an MLS and a BA in English Literature and Teacher Education from the State University of New York at Albany. She is a former President of the Medical Heritage Library, Inc., a non-profit that creates opportunities for researchers to engage with digitized history of medicine content.