Elizabethtown College’s High Library offers a multitude of services for students, faculty and community members. In addition to the extended catalog of books available both in print for checkout and online as e-books through the High Library’s website and databases, other materials like laptops and laptop chargers, games, movies, CDs and music scores are also available, as well as desktop computers, printers and even a coffee kiosk to keep you awake and help you get all your work done.
The reference desk is the place to go when you have a burning question in relation to your class assignments, like finding sources and how to cite them. But where do you go for help with checking out a book or for printer troubles? That’s where Student Library Assistants like third-year professional writing major Evan Kohlbus come in.
“At the High Library, I spend a lot of time helping patrons check in books, check out books and renew items,” Kohlbus said. “I also assist in the large-scale projects, such as inventory and relocating books.”
Kohlbus also occasionally helps students with the library’s printers, requests for interlibrary loans and assists in locating books that may be particularly difficult for people to find.
According to Kohlbus, the best part of the job is spending time with his coworkers, but he admits that he wishes more people used the library. “It is disheartening sometimes to see the lack of people checking out books,” he said.
However, working as a Student Library Assistant isn’t the only job Kohlbus has on campus, nor is it his only position in the library. Starting as an intern after a demonstration during one of Dr. Patrick Allen’s classes, Kohlbus worked his way up to becoming an Archives Assistant in the Hess Archives and Special Collections.
The Hess Archives consists mostly of external donations related to the Church of the Brethren and nearby Amish communities, as well as internal documents from various departments around Etown’s campus. These documents include materials related to the building and development of the college and its facilities, and even records and copies of items like the yearbook and the Etownian.
“My time at the archives is typically spent working on several different types of projects including, but not limited to, archival descriptions, scanning of materials, retrieval of artifacts for researchers and processing of new materials,” Kohlbus said.
“My favorite part of working in the Hess Archives is being able to learn all the niche historical facts about the College campus,” he said. However, because the Hess Archives is located on Level One and doesn’t see much traffic, Kohlbus explained that it can sometimes get a little lonely.
Some of the projects he’s contributed towards are the Teachers for West Africa project, the Karen Weiner-Johnson Collection and the Quimby and Milosh Mamula papers. Currently, he spends his shifts working on the Tempest Theatre program and poster digitization project, which requires him to scan in documents from old Tempest Theatre shows to improve access for anyone who might be doing research.
