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The Manchester Area Chamber of Commerce welcomed Sharon Edwards, director of libraries for Motlow State Community College during its member luncheon Tuesday, April 4 at the Manchester Coffee County Conference Center.

Edwards spoke about the campus libraries, and why play an important role for students, even in a world that continually becomes more digital focused.

“The library serves literally as the heartbeat of the institution,” Edwards said. “Basically we are an open door school, so we are an open door library.”

With a background in public libraries, Edwards said she moved into the world of academic libraries, which have the same basic principles.

“Free and open access to information is a core tenant of librarianship, and so that is obviously what we do in our libraries as well,” she said.

Edwards said the Motlow libraries welcomed 48,321 visitors across its four campus locations during fall 2022.

“We are the first front facing department that is open in the morning and we are the last one to close at night,” she said.

Edwards said there is a definitely a difference between the audience of a public library and an academic library.

“Some people think nobody reads books anymore, everything is digital nowadays,” Edwards said. “When I read for pleasure I want to have a book in my hand, but our audience is not the read for pleasure people.”

Edwards said an academic library on a college campus is an important tool and resource for students to successfully complete their assignments and progress throughout their college career.

“They have an assignment and they have to get it done…,” she said. “(They are) getting all of the information that they need from our databases and bringing it into their research papers.”

According to Motlow statistics, the college’s library databases had 621,879 total item investigations and 242,720 total item requests during the fall of 2022.

“When you think of that and you think how our enrollment sits just under 6,000, then you see this number, that is a lot,” Edwards said. “Our students are working. They are working hard and they are using the library to do it.”

The library also provides important services to students such as technology assistance, laptop rentals and free printing and copying services.

Edwards said the Motlow library staff teaches library instruction to students, which goes beyond simply how to find something in the library. While knowing how to find a peer review journal to complete an assignment is a short-term goal for students, there are also long term goals.

“The long term goal is 35 years from when they or someone close to them get a diagnosis of some four million dollar word that they have never heard of and they have to find information on it…that is what we do,” she said.

“We are giving them the skills to find not just information, but critical information,” Edwards added.