Lisa Gagnon: A New Face at 4Cs
by Ramona DiFrancesco
Since the start of the pandemic to now, 4C’s has gone from its usual hustle and bustle to an almost lifeless ghost town--students and faculty alike. One position that has remained open since September 2020 is the circulation manager, formerly held by Eileen Redfield for over 20 years.
As of January 2022, Lisa Gagnon has taken over a new position at 4Cs that combines the responsibilities of the circulation manager and the public services librarian, formerly held by current library director Tim Gerolami for ten years. Lisa Gagnon has nineteen years of experience as a public-library reference librarian. Before that, she was a paralegal in law firms and a legal services marketing firm. She attended Simmons University and the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, where she majored in history and minored in anthropology.
“I enjoyed researching history in the library in college and this led the way to me applying to graduate school for library science.” Gagnon said. She enjoys learning and helping people, so working as a librarian is a nice combination of two of her passions.
Gagnon was drawn to the position of Public Services Librarian here at 4C’s. “At my previous job I really enjoyed working with students both during class visits and after-school.” Gagnon said. She grew up on the Cape and had always wanted to come back to be closer to her family and the beach. “The job as Public Services Librarian was an opportunity to both work with students and be closer to family,” she added.
Lisa Gagnon
As the public-services librarian, she is the head of the circulation desk. Her duties include assisting in-person and remote public services, information literacy programming--the ability to successfully manage and apply information found using technology tools--and helping researchers with resources. She will also be in charge of coordinating and updating the course reserves, which is a group of books students can rent on specific topics for library use only. She is also currently recruiting work-study students to work as circulation-desk assistants.
Gagnon says there have been improvements made at the library. Students can now log on to library resources with just their 4Cs information, so now they can access eBooks, journals, magazines, newspapers, and streaming videos as soon as they are enrolled. The library is also planning to start a small collection of books for students, staff, and faculty who have been looking for novels and other books to read for themselves and not for assignments. She also says that the library staff would love to hear from readers about what they would like to see at the library.
Gagnon says that students can get the most from the library experience by approaching staff and asking for help when needed. She says, “I would first encourage students to save time by not hesitating to ask us questions wherever we are- the Circulation desk, the Reference desk, or just walking by in the stacks! Second, please look to us for help, whether it’s with finding a better Zoom space, finding where you can plug in, using our online resources, or figuring out where to start your research, we can and want to help you!”
Throughout the pandemic, Gagnon has been reading, streaming movies and TV, Zooming with family, and learning to play Animal Crossing, a popular Nintendo game debuted during the pandemic, so she could connect with her nieces and nephews online. Prior to the pandemic, she and her husband loved to travel and had visited over 20 countries. In the meantime, she is working on a family digitization project, where all of their old family slides and photos will become digitized. She considers herself both a cat and a dog person as she has three rescue pets- two cats and a dog.
Categories: People, Around Campus