Tom Rink was a police officer with the Tulsa Police Department (25 years of service).  Tom received his B.A. in Criminal Justice/Psychology from Michigan State University (in 1982), and his M.L.I.S. from the University of Oklahoma (in 1992).  Tom founded and created the Resource Center for the police department (where none had previously existed) in 1994 and served as the solo-librarian/information specialist for the Department until his retirement in April 2007.  Past assignments have included patrol (yep, I got to put bad guys in jail), crime analysis, planning and research, and policy writing.

Tom continues to remain active within SLA and was recently named a Fellow of SLA (2005).  Tom currently serves on the SLA Professional Development Advisory Council.  Tom was a previous Board Candidate in 2003 (for the position of Director), co-chaired (with Barbara Semonche) the Task Force on Membership (2001) which earned them the SLA President's Award (2002), and has served as Treasurer at the Division (Solo Librarians) as well as the Chapter (Oklahoma) level.  Tom is the current Past-President of the Oklahoma Chapter that celebrated their 50th Anniversary during his Presidential term (2006).   In addition to the Solo Librarians Division, Tom is also a member of the Government Information Division, the Leadership and Management Division, the Legal Division, the Knowledge Management Division, the Social Science Division, and the Non-Traditional Careers Caucus.

Tom is also active in the Oklahoma Library Association as well as the Fraternal Order of Police and is a member of the Advisory Board as well as the Re-accreditation Committee of the University of Oklahoma's Graduate School of Library and Information Studies.  Tom serves on the Executive Board of the Green Country Knowledge and Information Professionals Society and is a member of the strategic planning team for the Oklahoma Department of Libraries' Oklahoma Library Technology Network.

In his spare time, Tom enjoys running (has completed four marathons), cooking and baking (especially desserts), collecting art, playing his piano, and singing (is a member of Tulsa's Vocal Arts Ensemble).