PLYMOUTH-On August 22 the Plymouth State University community welcomed the arrival of a new director of Lamson Library, David Beronä.
The need for a new director came in the wake of the fatal death of Todd Trevorrow on November 3, 2004, nearly ten months ago.
Beronä brought with him a youthful charisma and an energetic drive for change.
Beronä has been spearheading plans with Dwight Fischer, the Head of ITS, on the inclusion of a café in the library and plans to integrate the library staff with ITS staff members to meet the technological needs of students and faculty in the Lamson Learning Commons.
David Beronä received his bachelors of science at Wright University in Dayton, Ohio. He then went on to receive his Masters of Library Science at Simmons College and finally his Masters of Arts at the University of New Hampshire.
Most of his career has centered on library technology with his most recent stint at the University of New Hampshire where he served as the Head of Library Computer Systems. “The big thing at UNH that I was instrumental in bringing,” said Beronä, “was increased remote access to our electronic databases.”
Five or six years ago authentication problems barred outside users from gaining access to the library’s resources; Beronä worked with developing technology to get the problem resolved.
Beronä is also the project manager for the UNH system, which was recently granted 300,000 dollars to purchase software and hardware for digitization. This would expand the digital collections of Plymouth State University, Keene State College and the University of New Hampshire. The grant money will also go towards installing federated searching, a more advanced search engine capable of retrieving a larger body of online resources in one search. In addition to his passion for research and discovery, Beronä is also an international scholar on woodcut novels and wordless comics on which he interviews and publishes extensively. Woodcut novels are printed images of black and white that convey deep social injustices. These images tend to reflect the problems faced by lower class society.
Will Eisner, the father of graphic novels, noted Beronä for his insight into the importance of woodcut novels on the graphic novels of today. Beronä was acknowledged by Eisner in the foreward of his book Graphic Storytelling.
“I’m not a Hallmark-card kind of person. I’m a realist,” said Beronä describing himself, “but I have a lot of trust in the people that I meet, students, faculty and the people outside the academic environment.”
He praised the library staff for being onboard with all the initiatives being brought to the forefront; support makes meeting goals a lot easier.
He also expressed his excitement for being part of such an energized community of students and faculty, stressing students to voice ideas about improvements to the library or electronic resources to pull him aside and let him know.