At the retirement reception on Friday, June 20th, Loren gave a few parting words to his colleagues and friends. Below is the transcript of his reflections!
REFLECTIONS
I am grateful for all the many kind
words expressed here this evening. These
16 years at LC have gone altogether too quickly. Oh for those days when we were in our 20’s
and time moved so much more slowly! Now,
I pause and wonder, “where have all the years gone?”
Now that I am retiring I often
think I’ve become a relic of the past.
How many in this room, for example, rode horseback to a one-room country
school? One of my vivid school memories was
the periodic visit from the County Superintendent of Schools and her bringing a
large wooden box filled with books. It
was always like Christmas to open up that box and retrieve a new book. Our teacher always read to us immediately
following the noon recess. On Saturdays
when my parents made the 23-mile trek to town for groceries I would go to the
Carnegie public library and read. That
was my first introduction to libraries and probably had a bearing on my
becoming a librarian later in life. Growing
up on the ranch in Nebraska taught me a lot about life and I’m grateful I had
that experience.
I didn’t start my career as a
librarian. I earned two degrees in
music from Westmar College and Colorado State University and I taught secondary
and college vocal music for ten years. I
might have made a career in music had it not been for my habit of forming new
ensembles, teaching more sections of voice class, etc. I found myself “burning out!” Indeed, the last year I taught I told my wife,
Pat, that Christmas just wasn’t fun anymore because it seemed like my
performing ensembles were involved singing everywhere during the season and
there was precious little time for my own family. That prompted me to consider an alternate
career and I guess my early experiences in the Carnegie Library at O’Neill,
Nebraska had some influence to that end.
With our two oldest children, Lisa
& Gina, and our newborn son, Ryan, Pat and I made the move to Bloomington,
Indiana where I had a graduate assistantship directing the Eigenmann Graduate
Residence Hall Library. My first job out
of library school was at the University of Nebraska at Kearney as Head of the
Government Documents Depository, and two years later I became Head of
Government Documents and Microforms at Auburn University.
When our fourth child, Amy, came
along and Pat was quitting her job I decided I needed to make a better living
for the family and I accepted a position with 3M Company. That began a career in the business world
that included me representing the Books Division of Brodart Company, and the
Library Systems Division of General Research Corporation in Santa Barbara,
California. Santa Barbara is one of my
most favorite places in the world!
While representing Brodart Company
I worked weekends as a Reference Librarian at Wofford College. I never expected to be able to re-enter a
career in libraries but Providence had other plans and I became Director of the
Library at Erskine College & Seminary until July 1, 1998 when I began my
career at LaGrange.
One of my long-time dreams as a librarian was to be involved in the building of
a new academic library. Thankfully, I
had that opportunity at LaGrange and was able to work with the late Jay Lucker
(library building consultant) and Steven Foote of Perry Dean Rogers
(architects). It has been such a delight
to work within this marvelous building that they had such a huge role in
bringing to reality.
Almost immediately upon arriving at
LaGrange College I started in earnest to begin the groundwork for planning a
new library. The Banks Library was one
of the smallest academic libraries in the Southeast and the collection was
considerably smaller than that at Erskine. There was very little study space in the old
Banks Library and one could not stuff one more book on the shelves. I am thankful to the
Board of Trustees of the College
for approving $100,000 for the installation of compact movable shelving in
Banks Library. That enabled us to
recoup much needed study space and shelving for new acquisitions. Indeed, it bought us some time until we were
able to move into the Lewis Library in 2009.
In the early stages of planning for
a new library I contacted library directors in Georgia, the Carolinas,
Virginia, Maryland, and Pennsylvania and traveled to a number of their
libraries. I asked them three questions:
(1) What works about your library? (2)
What doesn’t work? And (3) What might the library of your dreams be like? At the request of Jay Lucker, our building
program consultant, I organized 20 focus groups that represented every aspect
of LaGrange College life. The input from
those focus groups was provided to Jay Lucker for his consideration in
developing the buiding program.
After Jay Lucker had presented his
building program, President Gulley and the Board of Trustees authorized me to
issue invitations to architectural firms for proposals for a new library at
LaGrange College. All of the firms (with
the exception of Perry Dean Rogers) recommended tearing down Pitts Dormitory
and building the library in its place.
However, Perry Dean Rogers presented a plan to place a rectangular
building in space that was a parking lot in front of Pitts Dining Hall. Their initial plan included consideration of
renovating space in Pitts Dormitory to be used as a library annex and archives
at a future date.
Although Jacque Hornsby and Pat
Barrett have done a stellar job as part-time personnel in the Suber Archives of
Lewis Library, the earlier proposal by Perry Dean Rogers to utilize Pitts
Dormitory as a library annex and archives would still be a very welcomed
reality, indeed. If you visit the Suber Archives on the Lower
Level of Lewis Library you will quickly realize what I mean as we are already
out of space.
I am especially grateful to the
Board of Trustees that they saw fit to include a half million dollars for
collection development in the Defining Moment Campaign. In 1998 the library had fewer than 90,000
catalog records for books and other items.
Thanks to the funds associated with the building of Lewis Library we can
now boast of nearly 500,000 bibliographic records for books, e-books, and other information types . Few
liberal arts colleges in the nation can match the resources available for
LaGrange College students. Yes, I’m
proud of this building but I am also proud of the collections that we have been
able to build for our students & faculty.
LaGrange librarians serve as
liaisons to assigned academic departments and programs and have responsibility
for collection development and library instruction. The strong service orientation of librarians
and staff has strengthened a very active information literacy program at the
college. I have been blessed to have
the best library staff in America. I
credit any success that the library may have enjoyed directly to their efforts
and to their taking ownership of the library’s mission.
Speaking of “taking ownership,” I
want to give credit to National, and especially Brenda who keeps our building neat
and maintains a pleasant place for work, study, and research. All of the people at National are to be
commended for the work they do day in and day out. I constantly receive compliments from
visitors about our library building and the LaGrange College Campus. National is a big part of that and I’ve
always considered them to be a part of our “team.”
So, here we are 16 years after I
first arrived on campus. I am especially
thankful to have had the pleasure of knowing Frank & Laura Lewis for whom
this library is named. During my time in
LaGrange I have been fortunate to have organized and conducted the Sons of
Lafayette Male Choir for eleven years, and to have served as Director of Music
at First Presbyterian in LaGrange for an equal number of years. I cherish my many friends from the community and
I especially thank each of you for being here this evening to share in this
celebratory event.
Perhaps one of the poems in “God is
No Fool” by Lois Chaney says it best, “We are all made up of bits and pieces of
all who have touched our lives … pray God that we accept the bits and pieces.” As my wife, Pat, and I close out one chapter
of our lives, we will cherish the bits and pieces from having known each of
you. I give thanks to Almighty God that
in His Divine Providence He caused our paths to cross.
When I was commuting from
Greenville, South Carolina down to Due West at Erskine I often used the
commuting time to compose. My friend and
colleague, Lee Johnson, will come and direct members of the First Presbyterian
Church Choir and the Sons of Lafayette in singing two parting blessings that
resulted from that time in my life. I
hope each of you received a copy when you came this evening and I invite you to
open it up and “sing along.” Then, please
enjoy some good fellowship, food, and drink and explore the library. After all, this is a celebration!
.JPG)
