WILSON, N.C. — Barton College is pleased to announce the arrival of George W. Loveland as the Director of Hackney Library. His appointment was effective on March 12.
“With over 20 years of experience in academic library service, George Loveland brings a wealth of expertise to his new role at Barton,” said Dr. John P. Marsden, provost and vice president for academic affairs at Barton College. “Though his leadership, we anticipate moving the library forward with additions to programming for the campus community and the public as well as greater connections to academic life through the support of online courses and enhanced electronic resources.”
Prior to joining the Barton College community, Loveland served as director of the library at Ferrum College in Ferrum, Va. Earlier professional appointments included leading the Library Public Services at Ferrum, and serving as order supervisor for the Acquisitions Department at Davis Library on the UNC – CH campus. He began his educational career as an English teacher for Tyrrell County Public Schools.
“I am thrilled to be part of the Barton community, and I deeply appreciate the warmth and support I have felt since I set foot on campus,” shared Loveland. “I want our community to think of Hackney Library as a ‘teaching library.’ Librarians are no longer simply ‘guardians of the collections.’ We teach information access skills, and we teach students to critically analyze the information they retrieve. Today’s students access information from virtually anywhere and at any hour of the day or night. An educated person, with a college degree in a specific field, needs to understand how to judge that information for relevancy, accuracy, and authority, according to the standards and practices of their field. These are the skills we teach.”
Loveland earned a Bachelor of Arts degree and a Master of Arts degree in English at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He later completed a Master of Library Science degree from North Carolina Central University in Durham.
In addition to numerous articles and presentations, Loveland has published two books, “For Our Little Children: Growing Up in the Shadows of the Loray Mill Strike,” and “Under the Workers’ Caps: From Chapion Mill to Blue Ridge Paper,” for which he received the Harry Caudill Award for Journalism in 2006, as well as a nomination for Best Non-Fiction of 2006 at the Ninth Annual Library of Virginia Awards.
He has also received a variety of honors and awards, including the prestigious Richard G. Lane Fellowship for History Graduate Studies from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro in 2009/10; a Mellon Fellowship for the Salzburg Seminar, Salzburg, Austria, in March 2007, He has a strong interest in history as well as interest in and experience with promoting information literacy.
He is a member of the American Library Association, the American Librarian Association Social Responsibilities Roundtable, the Virginia Library Association, the American Association of University Professors, the Appalachian Studies Association, and the Southern Labor Studies Association.
A native of Newport News, Va., Loveland is the son of the late Mildred and George W. Loveland, Sr. He is married to the former Harriet Tucker Taylor of Faison. Together, they have six children: Elizabeth, Caroline, Andrew, Daniel, Joseph, and Matthew.
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Questions? Please contact Kathy Daughety, director of public relations, at 252-399-6529 or email: kdaughety@barton.edu.