 |
|
Photo: R. R. Jones |
|
|
|
Photo: R. R. Jones |
UCSC Library
If there's a heart to an academic institution, it would have to be the library. Just ask Ann Gibb. A UCSC employee, Gibb feels so strongly about the value of the library that, after putting in a full work week on campus, she still makes time to serve as president of the Friends of the UCSC Library.
Gibb wouldn't have it any other way. "I think I'm pretty lucky," she says. "I have work that is important to me, and I volunteer for what I regard as a vital campus and community resource--one that is used by everyone from cafe managers to poets to physicists. And, on top of it all, I get to do both jobs without ever leaving this beautiful campus."
A former elementary school teacher, Gibb is assistant to the director of the campus's Center for Research on Education, Diversity, and Excellence. Three years ago, she joined the Friends Board supporting the UCSC library.
Gibb says the volunteer group has two main reasons for being: to provide library access to the community at large through memberships (which furnish borrowing privileges) and to expand the library's collection through book and materials purchases.
"What I love about our work," Gibb says, "is that we can make a substantial difference that lasts for generations. It's like throwing the proverbial stone in the pond. The ripples go out for a long time."
--Barbara McKenna