As a kid, I loved hanging out in my hometown public library, with its squeaky wooden floors, its quiet, and its nooks — and the smelly old books. I was hooked and eventually turned a childhood haven into my workplace. I’ve seen Warren Wilson’s library transition from a modest physical collection to one with an impressive array of electronic resources. In recent years, we’ve focused some of our energies away from collections and more on users and assisting them in making connections with the wide variety of materials. Today, our services continue to evolve, working with students and faculty to help them turn academic, research and personal interests into newly created content utilizing a range of media. My particular interest in this shift materialized with the formation of a grant-funded Sound Lab, where students and faculty create a wide variety of digital audio artifacts and stories.
In all of my twenty-plus years here, I have been consistently amazed by how our students never fail to surprise me (in a good way). I’ve not once thought I had any of them figured out….