Jean Waldrop

Harding library director receives service award

Jean Waldrop, director for the Brackett Library at Harding University in Searcy, is the 2019 recipient of the Suzanne Spurrier Academic Librarian Award from the Arkansas Library Association. Waldrop has worked at the Brackett Library since 2006 and has been director since 2014.
Jean Waldrop, director for the Brackett Library at Harding University in Searcy, is the 2019 recipient of the Suzanne Spurrier Academic Librarian Award from the Arkansas Library Association. Waldrop has worked at the Brackett Library since 2006 and has been director since 2014.

Jean Waldrop said she got her love of the library from her parents.

Waldrop, who is director of the Brackett Library at Harding University in Searcy, received the Suzanne Spurrier Academic Librarian Award from the Arkansas Library Association during the Arkansas Louisiana Southeastern Library Association Conference on Sept. 29 in Hot Springs. She was nominated for the award by Amy McGohan, who works in the Brackett Library.

“My parents were always huge supporters of the library,” Waldrop said. “I think that’s where I got my love for it. We used to go to the St. Louis County Library. My mom would take us every week. We’d switch out the books. That was really an important thing.

“I remember her volunteering in my school library when I was growing up in elementary school.”

Waldrop said her parents, Robert and Geri Clegg, attended the ceremony where she received the award.

“It was wonderful,” Waldrop said of her parents attending the ceremony. “I did know they were coming. I told them when it was. It’s hard for them to drive now. They took the time to come in from Texas and do this. I feel like when you’re this old, it’s funny that your parents still come out and support you when you get an award. That’s special.”

The Suzanne Spurrier Academic Librarian Award is named after former Harding University Library Director Suzanne Spurrier, who was in charge of the Brackett Library from 1990-1998. The award recognizes an outstanding academic librarian within Arkansas.

Waldrop said for her to receive the award is “overwhelming.”

“I was really overwhelmed,” she said. “[Spurrier’s] picture hangs up in the library. We have a plaque in the library, so whoever wins [the award], we add their name to the plaque. We look at those names every day. It’s special because I was considered for that and received it.”

Waldrop said she never knew Spurrier.

“Everybody talks about her,” Waldrop said. “I never knew her personally, but everybody talks about how she was just a spirit of outstanding service. She loved being a librarian. She was very devoted to the profession.”

Spurrier died from cancer in 1998.

“I have the privilege of working in her office every day,” Waldrop said. “I still have several of her chairs in my office, and I’ve got some of her tables. I’m surrounded by stories of all of her accomplishments, the things she did for the Arkansas Library Association and for academic libraries across the state. So it’s very humbling to receive that.”

Waldrop said to be eligible for the award, a librarian must be a member of the Arkansas Library Association and work in an academic library at any college or university in Arkansas for at least three years.

Harding president Bruce McLarty said he is proud of Waldrop for receiving the honor.

“Jean makes the Harding University Library a happy hub of campus life,” McLarty said. “She and her team have a stellar reputation around campus for being able to locate any possible resource that a professor or student needs for a research project. Just as importantly, she brings a kind spirit and smiling face to her interaction with everyone. You can feel the warm hospitality of the library as soon as you enter. A lot of that has to do with Jean’s personality and the very special team she has assembled in the library.”

Waldrop said McLarty is a frequent visitor to the Brackett Library.

“He pops in,” she said. “Not many presidents take the time to do that. We’ve really appreciated that. Before he became president, he would come in and prop his feet up and read for a while. It’s a great place to work. It’s wonderful.”

Waldrop is originally from Missouri. She is a member of the Church of Christ and attended Harding University, receiving a bachelor’s degree in elementary education in 1983.

“I was all over the place,” she said. “I was married, and we moved. I decided to go back and get my graduate degree.”

Waldrop earned a master’s degree in learning technologies and information systems with an emphasis on library science from Texas A&M-Commerce in 2004.

Waldrop never really used her bachelor’s degree, outside of working for a kindergarten at a private church school in Texas, she said.

Two years after receiving her master’s degree, Waldrop was hired as circulation librarian at Harding. She became library director in 2014.

“It just worked out well for me,” Waldrop said of not working as an elementary teacher. “When I went back to get my graduate degree, I had thought, ‘What is it that I want to do?’

“I thought that higher education would be a good place. I had that in mind, thinking about being a librarian. I knew I would enjoy it.”

As Harding library director, Waldrop said, she is part of the faculty.

“I put a lot of things together that you get to do,” she said. “I teach a little bit. I get to be with the students and not be tied down to one class over the whole year. I get to meet a lot of different students and do a lot of different things.”

The Brackett Library has a little over 300,000 volumes, Waldrop said. The library has nine librarians and six staff members. It also has 45 student workers each semester.

“They are wonderful,” Waldrop said. “They make me look good.”

Waldrop said the Brackett Library falls under the Information Systems and Technologies Department at Harding.

“A lot of schools, the library falls underneath the provost,” she said. “I can answer to the provost because librarians are faculty members, but I report directly to Keith Cronk, who is vice president and CIO (chief information officer) of information systems and technology at Harding.

“Jean follows an esteemed group of Brackett Library directors,” Cronk said. “Shortly after coming to Harding, Jean assumed the role of health-sciences librarian. She ably demonstrated her librarian and leadership abilities in this role.

“Since being appointed director of the Brackett Library, Jean has led a number of initiatives that have seen growth in library use, greater integration of libraries with academic activities, strong growth in Harding’s archives collection and the implementation of Scholarworks, Harding’s institutional repository.”

Waldrop said she’s had some good mentors over the years, including former Harding library director Ann Dixon, who hired Waldrop in 2006; Dean Covington from the University of Central Arkansas in Conway; and Britt Murphy from Hendrix College in Conway.

“I feel very blessed because I did have a lot of good mentors,” she said. “A lot of them are library directors here in this state.”

Waldrop said her favorite books are historical fiction and biographies; however, she doesn’t get a lot of time to read.

“It’s terrible to be surrounded by books, and you don’t get a chance to read,” she said. “We have a book club on campus with some faculty and staff. We meet once a month. That, at least, makes me read a book for that and try to stay up on what’s out there and what is popular.”

Staff writer Mark Buffalo can be reached at (501) 399-3676 or mbuffalo@arkansasonline.com.

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