Carleton College Announces New Head Librarian

Libraries are commonly thought of as silent dwellings strictly for research, study and even sleep. At Carleton College, those stereotypes are about to change.

Meet Samuel Demas, Carleton’s new college librarian and senior lecturer. Demas started his education at Wabash College and the University of
Massachusetts, where he earned a B.A. in English and in education. He later received an M.A. in environmental education from the Goddard Graduate Program, teacher certification in Vermont, and his M.L.S. from Indiana University. From there Demas moved to Cornell University where he headed the collection and preservation division of the Albert R. Mann Library, specializing in scientific research. After 20 years at Cornell, Demas packed his bags for Carleton to explore the idealistic objectives that brought him into the profession. “I became interested in librarianship because of my belief that a library can serve as an informational and cultural center for a community,” he said, “That is what I hope to achieve here.”

Carleton, in particular, interested him because of its students’ attitudes and its library’s spirit. In his first term on campus, Demas has already noticed a big difference between other schools and Carleton, where the library is the place to study. “Many libraries concern themselves with getting students into the library. At Carleton, they’re already here.”

As the college librarian, Demas is responsible for providing leadership in the College’s “intellectual commons,” administering the information and resource services. His immediate plans at Carleton include expanding the selection of academic journals, as well as better serving specific departmental needs. In his spare time, Demas writes for academic journals. His article “The Internet and Collection Development: Mainstreaming Selection of Internet Resources,” with co-writers Peter McDonald and Greg Lawrence, won the 1995 Blackwell North America Scholarship Award, as well as an award from the American Library Association.

Being the head librarian is a “fascinating job that requires close relationships with both professors and students,” Demas said. Only three weeks into his first trimester, he has already initiated a series of meetings with the heads of all academic departments and with many of the College’s faculty. In meeting students, he has a considerable advantage – the Laurence McKinley Gould Library employs 103 students, over five percent of Carleton’s population. To the rest of the student body, Demas is as personable as any other professor, and looks forward to meeting students over lunch in the cafeteria.

Demas is not your stereotypically quiet and secluded librarian. He is energetic and excited about not only his position at Carleton, but about librarianship in general. “It is a remarkably encompassing profession that most undergraduate students do not consider for their future.” He encourages students interested in the academic world to consider not only being a professor, but to pursue the wide range of occupations in his field and the creative aspects used to make libraries more attractive to the community.

If Demas’s creative plans are realized, the Gould Library will get a lot more exciting, and increasingly popular. His proposed changes include hosting guest lectures, readings, occasional musical performances, improving the library’s permanent art collection and even adding some art exhibitions. It is all a part of his vision of the library as an athenaeum. It is no longer just a place to learn from books, but a place for all types of learning, making the library the new cultural center of campus. The library will still be the place to study ? but with all the excitement, it probably won’t be the place to sleep.