President’s Spotlight: Robin Lima, the Library’s Head of Access Services

Through the end of my time here at the U.S. Naval War College, I’m regularly highlighting someone or something that’s caught my attention over the previous couple of weeks. It might be a person – student, faculty or staff – who deserves recognition, or it might be an occasion I want to draw more attention to. These short ‘President’s Spotlight’ pieces will be posted about once every two weeks.

When Robin Lima showed up to work on her first day at the U.S. Naval War College library in February of 1982, she was a 22-year-old Providence College graduate with a degree in accounting. She says she can still remember that day like it was yesterday.

Her new workplace – Hewitt Hall – was only about six years old, and the library was still years away from being named after Rear Adm. Henry E. Eccles.

Never mind super intelligence, there was no internet and no email – that stuff was still about a decade and a half away.

They had typewriters, a large card catalogue and thousands of books.

Almost all of the military officers now enrolled in our College of Naval Command and Staff hadn’t been born yet, and if the students in this year’s College of Naval Warfare had been, well, they’d probably have been in diapers.

Now, in November of 2026, Robin has been at the Naval War College for nearly 45 years – more than 45 years of federal service if you count about six months of work she did over at the Naval Undersea Warfare Center next door as a college student.

Over almost a half century here, she’s seen five library collection moves, five different library directors and at least 18 Naval War College presidents. She’s seen the proliferation of computers and printers, the digital cataloging of resources, email, the world wide web and, yes, now super intelligence.

As technology has advanced, so has Robin. After about 10 years as a library technician, she shifted into working inter-library loans in the early 1990s. While continuing to work, she went back to school in 2010 and, by 2013, earned a master’s degree in library and information studies from the University of Rhode Island.

With her advanced degree in 2013, she moved into the leadership position as supervisor of what was then called circulation – now called access services.

The first in her family to graduate college, Robin always saw education as a gift and was motivated to continuously improve. She committed her professional life to helping others research, learn and graduate from this college as better strategic thinkers and military leaders.

But as much as Robin learned and grew, and as much as the technology all around us evolved, one thing remained a constant: The people of the Naval War College.

Robin tells us that the library team – and the larger war college team – have always worked together, solved problems and found ways to accomplish the mission.

Whatever the technology, whatever the challenge.

When a significant fire damaged much of the library within her first decade at the college, her team rallied to make sure students still had access to the references and resources they needed. Books were moved and salvaged, and library workers wheeled them around on carts for nearly a year before they could return to the library spaces.

For 45 years, Robin has been an integral part of the Naval War College library team and an irreplaceable part of the Naval War College family.

In the coming months, Robin will turn toward a well-deserved retirement. Asked if she has any advice for that next 22-year-old college graduate who may come to work at the war college in her stead, she said: Don’t be afraid to ask questions, and don’t be afraid to lean on your team for support.

Everyone is working together to accomplish the same mission, and everyone has a role and some knowledge to help.

That’s great advice for all of us.

I want to thank Robin Lima for nearly a half century of federal service and for everything she’s done for us here at the U.S. Naval War College. You’ll always be a part of the war college family, Robin.

– Rear Adm. Darryl Walker,
President, U.S. Naval War College