Simpson College welcomed Polly Mumma as the new library director of Dunn Library over the summer.
Mumma is originally from Des Moines, and most recently worked as the campus librarian at the DMACC Urban Campus, where her duties are similar to what she does at Dunn.
Mumma’s job as library director is to set and maintain policies, lead, direct day-to-day activities, and manage the library. One of Mumma’s main goals for Dunn is to educate students on the numerous resources the library offers.
“My favorite thing about the building is that we share it with other departments, and the ability to reach out,” Mumma said. “We talked about doing some collaborations and different things together, being able to build some bridges to other parts of the campus.”
She received her bachelor’s degree in history with a minor in German from South Dakota State and her Library Science master’s from Clarion University of Pennsylvania, which is now called Penn West-Clarion, before pursuing a PhD at Iowa State University.
Mumma has already made an impact by bringing back Doggies at Dunn, a widely attended, student-loved event the library has held in the past.
Students and faculty can expect to find dogs on the second floor of Dunn once a month. Mumma is known to bring her dog, Bhodi, to work several days a week. He is very lovable and hopes to meet as many students as possible.
Dogs are not the only exciting change happening in Dunn. Another addition is the Library of Things, made possible by a recent donation. The Library of Things includes board games, puzzles, tools and even fidgets.
Jill Brangers, Resource Access Coordinator, was one of the staff members on the hiring committee for the Library Director position. Brangers was impressed with Mumm’s ability to see what students need.
“She was very statistically oriented in trying to figure out how to help us get the word out about the library,” Brangers said. “She was interested in helping us reach out more to students, coming up with programing ideas, and getting people more involved with the library on campus.”
Mumma is also trying to incorporate all academic departments into Dunn’s changes.
“I’ve been reaching out to other departments to find out what we could do together, because independently we can do good things, but if we work together, we can do really great things,” she said.
Through events like faculty potlucks, she is hoping to connect with other departments and create events to benefit students.
The Writing Center and Research Assistance Center are two resources provided to students by the library. Mumma wants students to know that Dunn Library has a new Academic Search Ultimate database with 10,000 peer-reviewed journals.
“It should offer students a wide range of topics, every subject area you could think of enough resources to cover whatever project you might be working on,” Mumma said.
Another exciting change Mumma wanted to implement is expanding Dunn’s social media presence. Brangers oversees Dunn’s social media and oversees Darian Konrad, the new social media UGA for Dunn.
“Darian has taken over creating the posts for the different services we have, and she’s also working on the different displays that we have around the library,” Brangers said. “We’d like to be thought of as more than just your favorite study spot.”
With new employees at Dunn comes a new atmosphere and many new activities. Mumma already feels right at home in Dunn and hopes more students will too.
