The Ross Pendergraft Library is excited to welcome our new Head of Instruction and Outreach Librarian, Kelly Wiggains, who will be leading the library’s efforts to provide general information literacy and library instruction to students in a variety of majors, as well as taking on the library’s outreach activities. In addition to instruction, she will serve as the liaison for the Teaching and Educational Leadership department, as well as for the School of Professional and Community Education (PACE).
While Kelly is originally from Quanah, Texas, she spent some of her formative years in Arkansas while attending Harding University in Searcy to obtain a bachelor’s degree in English and a master’s degree in education. She then moved back to Texas, where she has worn a variety of hats as a writer, editor, curriculum developer, educational coordinator, and K-12 teacher in the Austin, Texas, area. She later obtained a Master of Library Science from the University of North Texas and served as the librarian at Studio Preparatory in Austin before arriving here.
She brings with her three children, Keynan (20), Parker (18), and Hannah Beth (16), as well as her spouse, Tyler. Her hobbies include being chronically online since 1997, pop culture, movies, reading, writing, and reading books about reading and writing (see Anne Lamott’s Bird By Bird for one of her recommendations).
Her special interests include human information behavior, information literacy instruction, information grounds theory, neutral questioning, and user experience.
When asked what she thinks is the most fun about this job, she said, “I get to convince students that databases are cooler than the rest of the internet. Plus, I get to have all the fun of teaching students without having to grade essays!”
Like most librarians, Kelly enjoys recommending books to other people. She also loves history when it sounds like gossip and diving down a good rabbit hole. If you need a good rabbit hole or if you have some juicy history gossip, stop by to visit her on the first floor of the library in RPL 121, just behind the Research Help Desk. You can also request classroom library instruction, individual research help, or a good book recommendation by emailing her a kwiggains@atu.edu.