One building every student in common is the library. Reinhardt’s new Director of Library Services, Shannon Gibson, looks forward to seeing every Eagle and professor there this school year. She is there to support both students and faculty and encourages everyone to take advantage of the resource, “Don’t skip past the library. Whether you come into the building or use the online library database, we have so much to support you.”
Gibson previously ran the Acworth campus library at Chattahoochee Technical College for over 7 years and concentrated on research instruction. She also spent over seven years as a Librarian at the Salvation Army Training College in Atlanta. While getting her Library Science degree from Catholic University and working as a freelance researcher, she saw first-hand how the National Archives in DC organizes and stores records. Even during these great experiences, she says she always watched for an opening at Reinhardt, “It has a great reputation, and I like the environment of a small university where I can get to know everybody well. I like that everyone seems to like being here. There isn’t negativity. That is so refreshing.”
Now that she’s running the Hill Freeman Library and Spruill Learning Center, Gibson is setting goals of modernizing the way to find research and fine tuning the collection. She wants to make sure the facility continues to offer what people need, including relevant subscriptions.
The library staff wants to connect with students and let them know it’s a great place to visit. There are computers with free printing, but a copy machine with the convenience of creating PDFs of scans onto a flash drive. There are study rooms and quiet corners away from distractions. Gibson emphasized that they are available to help answer even the smallest questions or provide research guidance in person, by phone, and by email.
