Richenda Hawkins

Meet Library Department Chair Richenda Hawkins

Students have a plethora of resources at their disposal if they need information or help with their classes. Richenda Hawkins works hard to make those resources easy to access, and she’s available to help students with whatever problems or questions they might have.

While assisting students is Hawkins’ primary job, her duties go beyond the book shelves of the library and involve improving the LBCC community as a whole.

Hawkins has been the  chair for four years at LBCC. Her responsibilities as the department chair mean overseeing the budget, the supervision of the classified staff, the facilities, and everything that has to do with promoting the library. Despite her responsibilities as department chair, Hawkins makes time for each student that stops by the help desk.

Hawkins’ career as a librarian stems from an early love of public libraries and books.

“I’d just hop on the bus and go to the public library and check out books. I thought it was such a big adventure,” she said. “I’ve always been a big reader. I remember in about fourth or fifth grade really liking “The Chronicles of Narnia .” It sort of sparked a love of the fantasy genre, so I’m still a fan of anything that takes me outside of our reality.”  

While her youthful journeys to the library and fantasy worlds lit a fire under Hawkins’ feet, the path that led where she is now was a long one.

“It was a process. I started becoming interested in becoming a librarian when I had my first job in a library,” she said. “I was a senior in college, so I basically got a work studies type job working at the UC Davis main library. My job there was to help the department that was called gifts and exchanges, so my job was to sort through all the books that were given to us and make some decisions on them a little bit and put them in the catalog.”

She eventually got her master’s degree in library science.

Fellow librarian Bryan Miyagishima works with Hawkins on a daily basis.

“She’s an excellent colleague. She’s always upbeat, always energetic, so she’s very delightful to work with,” he said.

Current LBCC students might not know this, but there used to be signs all over the library that said, “Please be quiet.”

“Richenda eliminated all of those,” Miyagishima said. “We kind of count on students to police themselves. Students don’t need to be treated like little kids.”

Ultimately, Hawkins wants to help people become the best they can be.

“My job is to share things with people,” she said. “What I get to give you is something that has the potential to make you a better human being. To increase your understanding. To increase your knowledge. To maybe improve your job prospects. I get to help you find it, I get to help you understand it, and I get to give it to you for free. I think that’s a really awesome thing to be able to do every day in your life.”

At a glance:

• If you have any questions for Hawkins, email her at hawkinr@linnbenton.edu.
• If you need help finding a certain book, go to the LBCC Library database.
• For help with your classes, go to the Learning Center located on the second floor of the library.