Sara Baron on librarianship, universities and being Pittsburgh bound; Duquesne Duke, 8/26/15

Seth Culp-Ressler, Duquesne Duke; Sara Baron on librarianship, universities and being Pittsburgh bound:

"On Sept. 1 Sara Baron will begin her new position at Duquesne as head librarian for Gumberg Library. Baron comes to the Bluff with a wealth of librarianship experience, most recently as the dean of the university library at Regent University in Virginia Beach, Virginia. Consider this her formal introduction to campus, as well as an invitation for all faculty and staff to welcome her with a good old Duquesne greeting when she arrives...

Q: It may be a bit early for this, but do you have any plans in mind for Gumberg Library?

A: Naturally I’m going to have to get there and really talk to people and meet people and really have some conversations before I can come up with a specific plan. But I can tell you that I think the Gumberg Library team already works with excellence. I think they’re already doing a lot for students and for the local campus community. So for me I just want to help them do that even more. I think there probably needs to be some space enhancements. I don’t know exactly what that’s going to look like, but I do think there’s always opportunities to make library spaces more conducive for students, for student work, for group work, for collaborative work. Those are some initial thoughts, but of course I can’t say anything specifically until I get there and actually talk to people and get a real sense of what the needs are. Ultimately, though, students come first. So the library has to meet all the needs of the students and really things they aren’t even expecting. I like to surprise students, so when they walk in they say ‘Wow, this is a great place, this is somewhere I want to be.’"