One of our greatest joys at WiLS is hearing our members tell the stories of the big and important work they are doing – interesting new projects or initiatives, or even interesting and new approaches to old projects. And, in addition to hearing about it, it makes us even happier when we can share those stories with other members. Each month, WiLS is proud to feature an interview with one of our library members.
This month, we interview Nathan Dowd, Library Director at Edgewood College’s Oscar Rennebohm Library and WiLS Board Member!
Why did you, personally, choose to work in libraries?
I came to work in libraries by a serpentine path. I had always been a lover of books and out of all of my school work enjoyed doing research the most. However, I never considered librarianship and instead pursued a career in law enforcement. After finishing my undergraduate degree (sociology & criminal justice) and while applying for police and game warden positions, I worked at a bookstore. One of my jobs there was to fill “institutional” orders placed by libraries and schools. I became fascinated with the jobs of the librarians who were my customers and my interactions and conversations with those librarians eventually led me to library school.
What is unique about the culture of your library? How do you influence it?
As a liberal arts college rooted in the Sinsinawa Dominican tradition, Edgewood holds the five Dominican values: Justice, Truth, Partnership, Compassion, and Community.
Being a relatively small library, Partnership is the value that I identify with most in my work as library director. My staff and student workers are a very tight-knit group and work very well together to get things done for our patrons. This means that all of us wear many hats and pitch in to help each other out regularly. We have a lot of fun working together too!
As the director, I try and model this so you are just as likely to find me helping clear a printer jam or check out a book to a patron as you are to find me in a meeting or working on budgets. Furthermore, I like to involve our student workers in some of the decision making in the library and give them ownership of some projects too. They amaze me on a regular basis.
What do you think is important to know about the community you work with? What helps you understand their needs?
While traditional undergrads are an important and active segment of our library’s patrons, we also have graduate students (Master’s programs in business, education, nursing, marriage and family therapy, and sustainability leadership are offered as are two doctoral programs, an Ed.D. in educational leadership and a DNP, doctor of nursing practice). Edgewood College also proudly offers the Cutting Edge program which is a fully inclusive college experience for individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Furthermore, we are open to the broader Madison community. All of this means that we serve a wide variety of learners in many different stages of research and scholarship.
What big ideas are being worked on at your library? What problems are being solved?
It seems like there is always something new going on in our library. We just went through a major change over the summer and migrated to a new ILS after 17 years with our old one. Currently, we are collaborating with several academic departments on our campus to begin a digital humanities initiative on our campus. Also, we have begun to increase our outreach to high schools and middle schools. We are offering grade-appropriate workshops and tours that can be customized to the needs of a class or school. We had one this semester already and another later this month. Please let me know if your school is interested, too.
These interviews are part of a series of interviews with both WiLS library and vendor partners. Your feedback is appreciated. If you have any to offer on this article or suggestions for upcoming interviews, contact Andrea Coffin at acoffin@wils.org.