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The
new director of the David O. McKay Library at BYU-Idaho is on a mission to
increase information literacy.
Martin H. Raish, who succeeded
Tom Liau who retired in August, says his overall goal –and underlying
passion—is information literacy, which he describes as helping people
“locate, evaluate and manage information.”
He hopes to build the library’s
resources to fill a broader range of needs for more students. He wants to
teach basic information literary skills at the freshman level, have
students focus on a particular major field of study and become familiar
with its resources at the sophomore level, and to become truly information
literate at the junior and senior level.
“It’s knowing how to ask the right questions. Being
information literate is essential if our students are to survive and thrive
in the twenty-first century. It’s not just how to use the library but how
to be information savvy. It’s the transfer of knowledge, those critical
thinking skills, for use not just as a student but as a parent, church
leader, and member of society.”
He also considers one of his
duties to be broad-scale training, or providing opportunities for others to
learn and expand. He adds that his main job as making sure things are on an
“even keel,” that everything is working.
Approximately 20 people, half
of whom are faculty and half of whom are staff, plus more than 70 students,
work with him in running the library.
“We have a great group of
people who are experienced and knowledgeable in what they do,” Raish says.
“Much of my job is to make sure that we have the necessary resources,
equipment and space. My position as a leader is to set the tone, create the
vision and see higher, wider, further.”
Part of that vision includes
gradually expanding the library’s collection. Currently, the McKay houses
approximately 151,000 books, which, while it is a lot, is also “not nearly
enough.”
“The outline for growth over
the next few years is to get more materials generally and more materials
with a specific focus, which is much different than what already exists in
the two-year collection.”
He also hopes to increase
electronic material, although that poses some dangers, including technology
change and lack of ownership since the databases are “rented” from
electronic services, Raish says.
Still, over the next few years
he aims for a “modest increase” in paper journals as well as full-text
databases that are as broad and deep as possible.
Raish earned his B.A. from the
University of California-Davis, his M.A. from the Institute of Fine Arts at
New York University, his masters of library and information science from
the School of Library and Information Sciences at BYU and his Ph.D. at the
University of New Mexico.
He
has worked as an associate librarian at the Harold B. Lee Library at BYU
and at the Glenn G. Bartle Library at Binghamton University, State
University of New York, and as an adjunct professor at the School of
Information Science and Policy at the University of Albany, State
University of New York.
He is the author of multiple publications, and has
received, among other awards, the State University of New York Chancellor’s
Award for Excellence in Librarianship, and recognition from the Association
of College and Research Libraries Instruction Section and the American
Library Association Library Instruction Round Table. # # #
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