Northwestern has named Greta Grond as the new director of the DeWitt Library.
Grond joined the NW staff seven years ago as a project assistant to the previous director until she was promoted to the position of research and systems librarian in 2011.
“I had never worked at a library before (coming here),” Grond said.
After coming to NW, she went back to school and received her masters in library science from Wayne State University in Detroit. Then she took on more responsibilities at the library.
Grond had been serving as the interim director of the library this year after the previous director, Tim Schlak, left NW last summer to take the job as the library director of Robert Morris University in Pittsburgh, Penn.
Since becoming the interim director, Grond has begun several projects she hopes will better the library for both staff and students. One such project is preparing the website for storing NW scholarships. The website will be a place where students and staff can publish and organize original research or creative works.
“It will help create a more systematic assessment of who, when and how people are using the library,” Grond said.
Grond has been working on this project since the beginning of the year. Now she and other staff will be in charge of updating the system and making it more efficient for use.
Another project Grond and her coworkers carried out this week was an Art Walk, which was a part of the Day of Learning in Community. The Art Walk exhibited unique hanging art around the library. Patrons were able to meander through the library’s three floors as they followed a map that guided them to the different art works.
However, her main concerns for the library are the problems brought to her by students and staff.
“I’d really like to know if there are problems”, Grond said. “I encourage students to come to us.”
Students can rest assured that problems such as website issues, book inquiries and general questions will be answered.
Some students have brought forth the issue of Wi-Fi connection problems in the library.
“[Wi-Fi] was bad when we first moved into [the building], but we added more hot spots, which helped a lot,” Grond said.
While problems continue to arise with Wi-Fi across campus, the library will stand as a more reliable hot spot.
Grond views her new title as library director as an honor.
“As a Christian, I want to serve students,” Grond said.
