ALUMNA PROFILE
Mae Lipscomb Rodney (Ph.D. ’86): Reflecting on a long and eventful academic library career
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uring Mae Lipscomb Rodney’s 32-years as Library Director at Winston-Salem State University (WSSU), the only constant seems to have been change. Rodney successfully led the C. G. O’Kelly Library through a number of physical transformations, personnel expansions, and technological implementations, helping it grow from a “small box” where staff members were asking for a functional typewriter, to a modern facility with high-tech resources and versatile collaborative spaces. “From the time I entered the library in 1983 until I left there in June, there was always something new coming down the pike,” Rodney said. “There was always some addition or modification that was needed, some new technology that had to be incorporated. There was so much to do, but I enjoyed what I was doing and I enjoyed the people I was working with. I always said, the library was never boring.” Rodney arrived at WSSU well-prepared for the challenges, with an MSLS, Ph.D., and more than 15 years of academic library experience at North Carolina Central University (NCCU). A native of Durham, N.C., Rodney attended NCCU as an undergraduate, initially planning to become a history teacher, but faculty encouraged her to add a library science minor because it offered more career options. She also got a job in the NCCU library after the director noticed her waiting each day for her sister-in-law, who worked in the library, so they could drive home together. This was the first in a series of “right-place, right-time” moments that helped shape Rodney’s career. After completing her bachelor’s degree, Rodney enrolled in the MSLS program at NCCU. Working in the serials department of the library made for an easy commute (“I just walked down the hall and took the classes,” she recalled), and Rodney stayed with the NCCU library for over a decade after finishing her graduate degree. She was there on the day when Edward Holley, Dean of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Library Science, came to discuss his school’s plan to begin offering doctoral degrees and its interest in recruiting African-Americans to the program. Rodney became UNC’s first, and during her time the only, African-American library science Ph.D. student. She credits the faculty for getting the program off to a good start.
“They all wanted that program to succeed,” she said. “When you have a unified team, it makes a difference. Everybody was working for the same goal. They wanted students to graduate with knowledge, with a certain level of capability and respect to become leaders in the field.” In particular, Rodney fondly remembers Robert Broadus, her dissertation committee chair, Haynes McMullen, who taught library history, Fred Roper, who along with Holley regularly conveyed his interest and desire to see students succeed, and Lester Asheim. “Dr. Asheim was such a gentlemen and scholar, and I admired him tremendously,” Rodney said. “His grace, demeanor, and authority reminded me a lot of my grandmother, who was a very strong woman. I saw the same traits in him.” After completing her coursework, Rodney returned to work at NCCU while finishing her dissertation, “The Influence of Certain Variables on Collection Use at Three Historically Black Liberal Arts Colleges.” She was promoted to head of reference, but not long –Mae Lipscomb Rodney after, the vice chancellor for academic affairs at WSSU contacted Holley in search of a library director, and Holley recommended Rodney. “Like they say, the rest is history,” Rodney said. That history includes a number of significant milestones, both for the WSSU library and for librarianship in general. Rodney managed the library during construction of an addition and extensive renovations that spanned between 1988 and 1996, and another refurbishment between 2008 and 2012 that brought additional meeting and study spaces, a larger instruction classroom, and an expanded media production lab. She oversaw the library’s transition from card to online catalogue and the rapid expansion of World Wide Web resources like NC LIVE, which in turn required the
“There was always some addition or modification that was needed, some new technology that had to be incorporated . . . the library was never boring.”
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THE iSCHOOL @UNC-CHAPEL HILL
Mae Lipscomb Rodney