Noteworthy Librarian Empowers Lifelong Learners

“Amy is one of the rocks of our library staff,” says Associate Director of Libraries Rhonda Gilbraith. “Her official job title doesn’t begin to encompass all that she does to enable us to provide excellent service to our community.”  Catalog/Material Services Librarian Amy Reinhold ’93 consistently strives to make the library an easily accessible resource for lifelong learning, and for these efforts, she has been awarded the Spring 2018 Core Value Mark of Distinction. This award is given to Bethel employees who embody Bethel’s core values, impact their department’s goals, fruitfully serve the Bethel community, and further Bethel’s mission and vision. Learning has been evident throughout Reinhold’s 20-year career time and time again.

Reinhold worked in the library during her four years at Bethel, and because of this experience, she pursued her Master of Library and Information Science before returning to the university of her roots. “In the back of my mind, I thought it would be wonderful to come back and be a part of this special place,” Reinhold says. “God answered my prayer, and even though the staff has changed since I was a student, the library’s commitment to service has not.”

Reinhold’s own commitment to service has been invaluable. “No one on our library staff works harder than Amy. She’s often the first one here and the last one to leave,” says Gilbraith. “She works steadily on her various projects, but also manages to be available and willing to help when a new need arises.”

The most recent example of Reinhold’s service occurred as the Cooperating Libraries in Consortium (CLIC) changed systems. The consortium consists of six local universities—Bethel, University of Concordia St. Paul, Hamline University, University of Northwestern St. Paul, University of St. Catherine, and University of St. Thomas. Reinhold played an important role troubleshooting the problems that arose when old data needed to be transferred to a new system. Each library housed data differently, so unifying the overall system was no easy task.

“Amy was Bethel Libraries’ MVP in our recent system migration,” Gilbraith says. “While many worked very hard on this enormous year-plus project, Amy’s deep knowledge of the library’s system and its underlying data was instrumental in making an arduous process as tolerable and successful as possible.”

Reinhold, however, is quick to give credit to her coworkers. “I could not have done this without input and support from my library colleagues,” she adds. “As we worked together through this process, our primary goal is providing a comprehensive research tool to the Bethel community.”

Reinhold’s influence in the library encompasses everything from large system updates to the individual student workers she has the privilege to supervise each semester. Reinhold wants students to learn valuable life skills that transcend the physical resources the library provides. “Amy also excels in developing confidence in her students,” Gilbraith says. “It has been fun to watch their transformation under her tutelage—some begin almost painfully shy and tentative, but end being confident and highly competent.”

Reinhold, along with four other Bethel employees, was awarded the Core Value Mark of Distinction in May at an Executive Leadership Team meeting. Each recipient received a $250 check and a custom-made Bethel fleece jacket for their representations of a Bethel core value.

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