UNK TODAY
20 | Saturday, August 24, 2024
Students From 19
Renovations From 19
dividual student. “For the majority of students that come to college, their goal is to graduate and be prepared for a career,” he said. “That’s what suc- cess is for them. For some students, they might be here to develop a certain skill. They might be look- ing into one of our certificate pro- grams with 12 credit hours. They’re not looking to graduate with a full bachelor’s degree. They’re here to enhance some skill for some rea- son.” Helping students find success requires a holistic effort by getting to know students and understand- ing their needs. “And then we need to figure out how to help them achieve that suc- cess,” Estes said. “We’d like to be more than just conveniently lo- cated. I think our work together can make us more effective in the support we provide students.” The current renovations at the Calvin T. Ryan Library has made it possible to tailor the space to the needs of the Loper Success Hub. “The remodeling of the library has made this possible, along with support from the administration at UNK. It has become a priority part of this project.” “The remodeling of the library has made this possible, along with support from the administration at UNK. It has become a priority part of this project.” Aaron Estes, senior director of the Loper Success Hub
to major in might meet with some- one in our advising and career of- fice. Through that conversation, they might learn that they need to take a series of courses that might have been challenging in the past.” The student can receive a refer- ral to the tutoring center. “Or a student might be meeting with a tutor,” Estes said. “The tutor might learn that in high school, the student who came for tutoring had an IEP (Individualized Education Program) and they haven’t con- nected with Disability Services at UNK yet. We can connect them right there.” Estes often finds that students seeking support need more than one type of help. “Students come with complex backgrounds and complex hurdles they might be trying to clear,” he said. “Having all these different services together can create an environment where it’s more ho- listic.” Housing so many services in one place can help to give a certain sense of clarity to students. “Clearly understanding where I can go to get support that I might need is important,” Estes said. “We don’t want students to feel like they need some help, but be unsure where to go to get it. There is a baseline level of improvement that will happen from just hav- ing us all together. Over time, as we work together more and more, we’ll find ways to enhance services based on collaboration.” As for achieving success, Estes noted that it depends on each in-
“The project is going well, but we’re behind,” Boyd said. “Of course, every project ends up be- ing a little behind. At this point, I think nearly everyone who is go- ing to have an office in the library has moved in. We don’t have our front entrance ready at this point because during the second week of classes, we will have some art installed from the ceiling of the atrium.” Former Nebraska artist Leslie Iwai will install her piece, “Cu- mulate.” The artist wrote about the piece on her website stating, “Cumulate’s visual language highlights the beauty and role of clouds in the Nebraska land- scape, interlacing it visually, au- dibly, and tangibly with the work of Nebraska poets, evoking the beauty of the Nebraska landscape and its people.” The library will feature a rib- bon cutting ceremony at 4 p.m. Oct. 10 and the artwork will be revealed at a dedication at 6 p.m. “We’re building up collections in different ways than we used to,” Boyd said. “Librarians are experts in finding things. They are the people that everyone on campus goes to when they are stumped and don’t know what to do or don’t know where to start. Librarians can walk people through the process of finding things, how to do things.” The library staff also features individuals who specialize in unique areas. “We have one person who is working on becoming a special-
RICK BROWN YARD LIGHT MEDIA The $25 million renovation project will update almost all aspects of the 100,000-square-foot building. “Librarians are experts in finding
“Regardless of your back- ground, librarians are here to make sure you can successfully learn,” he said. Some academic libraries, espe- cially on campuses that focus on the sciences, have less of a need for a physical collection. “We are comprehensive here at UNK so we need a thorough col- lection to support teachers, fu- ture teachers, historians and to support the broad range of sub- jects that have a focus on physical books.” Boyd also notes that the Calvin T. Ryan Library also serves com- munity members. “The UNK library remains open to the public,” he said. “Folks are able to freely check out materials as long as they have a Nebraska state ID of some form. The public is welcome to come here with their questions, too.”
things. They are the people that everyone on campus goes to when they are stumped and don’t know what to do.”
Evan Boyd, Dean of the Calvin T. Library
ist in data management, really digging into numbers when they need to,” he said. “We’re doing this in partnership with the other campuses in Nebraska; UNMC, UNL and UNO all have a full time librarian who just does data man- agement. Right now we only have it as a piece for one of our folks.” Boyd sees libraries as an equal- izer.
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