Werner Lind: Library Hero

Werner Lind has been serving Bluefield College for 28 years, currently as the co-director of Easley Library where he wears many hats to serve BC students.

Among Lind’s roles as co-director of the library: inter-library loan director, serials librarian, overseer of book selection, manager of discarding unwanted books, as well as secretary of BC faculty, a position he has held since 2012.

“There really isn’t a typical day, because I do so many different things,” said Lind about a typical workday in the library, “and they’re done in different times and circumstances.”

Lind went on to describe many of the things he does week by week, including drafting minutes, pulling books for discard, tending to the public service area in the library, cataloging donated books, and of course recently sanitizing tables, chairs, books, and shelves.

“It certainly does keep me hopping,” Lind said.

Lind grew up in Clinton, Iowa, where he attended Clinton Community College (CCC) to earn his associate’s degree. He went on to earn a bachelor’s degree in history from Bethel College in Kansas, a master’s degree in religion from Eastern Mennonite Seminary in Virginia, and a second master’s degree in library science from Indiana State University.

“My first introduction to libraries was as a six-year-old first-grader, just beginning to read independently,” Lind said. “Libraries quickly became my favorite place in the world, and at CCC I even worked in the library all through my sophomore year as a student worker. I never thought I’d work in one professionally. “

By the time Lind earned his bachelor’s degree, he said he felt called to Christian higher education, but at the time he was more focused on teaching. In the 1980s, he taught at three small Christian colleges or Bible institutes. At the last two, he was also in charge of the library, which is what ultimately changed his career path.

“That was what inspired me to go back to graduate school for my library degree,” Lind said.

With nearly three decades of service as a librarian, Lind said a lot has changed over the years.

“The biggest change has been the computer revolution,” he said. “When I got my first library job in 1987, there were no computers in the library.  Inter-library loan requests were sent by mail.  We used a card catalog and did check-out with paper date cards, and that was still true here when I started.”

Lind added that the internet was in its infancy when he started at Bluefield College, and the library still had a CD tower for storing electronic data caches on CD.

“We used floppy disks a lot for storing information,” he said. “AV (audio visual) services were much different then. All of our movies were on VHS tapes, and one of my jobs was shuttling overhead projectors around and servicing them, because they were still used a lot in the classrooms.”

In addition to his commitment to the library and Bluefield College, Lind is committed to his faith.

“The Bible is my favorite book, far and away,” he said. “There’s no other book that compares with it.”