Rebecca Chavez
Rebecca Chavez was recently named the new Library Director for Central Wyoming College, stepping up from a librarian position at CWC.
Rebecca completed her MLIS program through San Jose State University in 2021. During her graduate work at SJSU she focused on academic librarianship, emerging technologies, and information organization. She holds a BA and MA in art history from California State University, Chico, as well as a certificate in museum studies and a minor in communication design.
Before coming to CWC, Rebecca worked as a Visual Resource Curator in the Art & Art History Department at CSU, Chico, beginning in 2016. She was in charge of a specialized library housing over 3,000 items related to art, art education, art history, and interior architecture for the courses taught in her department. She worked with professors to develop the collection and coordinate class visits and tutorials, and with the students to help them enhance their research and writing skills.
Becoming a director was always a goal for Rebecca, but she didn’t think that it would happen this quickly.
“After the last CWC director quit on my first week on campus, I knew I had to step up to the plate and begin the director journey,” she said. “The CWC library has not been the top priority over the past few years and needed someone that would fight for it. It needed someone that would promote learning in a new way that hasn’t been seen on campus for many years. I knew that I could be that person. I have a lot to learn, but I’m up for the challenge.”
While she sees challenges ahead, she said the library has knowledgeable staff and a beautiful facility. Moving forward, she plans to build on those strengths and build links across the campus.
“There’s a lot to do here at CWC, but I’m making headway with faculty members and I’m hoping to develop relationships with them,” she said. “I want the faculty at CWC to see that the library should be used as a partner or helper to their courses. I want the college to see the library as an academic institute that doesn’t only check out books, but that has librarians who can help students learn research, writing, and editing skills.”
Rebecca also has plans to become more involved with the Wyoming library community. This year, she hopes to join the Wyoming Library Association mentoring program. She also wants to attend a few out of state conferences to bring back new understandings of libraries in the changing “post-COVID” world.
“I’ve enjoyed how close Wyoming libraries are,” she said. “Having a consortium of libraries allows for collaboration and a unique ability to learn from others who are having success or sometimes having shortcomings at differing tasks. We can really learn what works and how objectives or tasks can be tweaked from the others in the system.”