Librarians are some of the most important people on a university campus. Not only are they friendly faces by the circulation desk, but they are helpful resources for students and faculty. And for Kanopy and Libby, they are our ambassadors on campus. We are continuing our series of highlighting Academic librarians who have unique perspectives regarding their approach to content curation and management.

We recently interview Michael Kirby from Dakota County Technical College Library about being a librarian and what initiatives and resources he finds most helpful for students. Here’s what he had to say:

1. What aspect of being a librarian do you find most fulfilling?
I love it when a patron comes to the library with a topic they’re truly interested in and I’m able to introduce them to resources that will expand their knowledge and understanding of that topic. A patron I had helped three years ago recently came up to me and told me about all of the great articles he went on to find in a database I showed him how to use.

2. Reflecting on your actions, what initiative do you believe has had the most significant impact on usage at your college?
Our circulation statistics confirm that the books we put on display tend to get checked out more than average. In addition to our new materials display, we have two other displays that change themes from month to month. These might have to do with Women’s History Month, Black History Month, gardening, travel, neurodiversity, or just a bunch of books with yellow covers! Regarding reference and research, don’t assume that students know they can get help from a librarian. I’ve reached out to our student support staff and tutors about our services, and they have brought many students to the library who might not have seen us otherwise.

3. How do you inform faculty about the new resources acquired by your library?
I regularly publish lists of new titles on our blog, social media, and in e-mails to our whole campus. Faculty sometimes visit within hours to check out one of the books they saw on the list. With new databases, if it’s in a specific subject area, I’ll personally contact the relevant faculty and offer to provide a demo for them or their whole class.

Interested in promoting Kanopy at your library?

Here are some free resources to start using today:

Reach faculty, staff, students—everyone on campus with social using our new 15-second video featuring documentaries. It invites the viewer to explore the vast streaming catalog your library unlocks. Download Now.

Looking for more assets? We have even more promotional assets in our Resource Center.