Collins Library now has a new director of library services. Replacing Kay Bradt, who retired after 40 years at Baker University, is Ray Walling. Although he is not new to Baker University, Walling said this new role will allow more opportunities to create useful resources for Baker students.

Walling has worked at Baker since August 2008, when he first was employed as an electronic services and government documents librarian. Walling still works in those areas, but now he also works on a series of other projects.

“One of the things we are working on right now is weeding the government documents collection to make some more space for student areas,” Walling said.

Another project is developing the patron-driven acquisition profiles for the university. Walling said that these profiles allow patrons to select books the library hasn’t bought yet. This is done by creating profiles of the types of books libraries think their patrons want. This is then put into the library’s catalog. If a student decides to pick that book and opens it for a certain amount of time, the library has then purchased that book.

“We started allowing people to use those profiles in July and we’ve had very little usage,” Walling said. “I think part of it has to do with, we’ve made the profiles too restrictive and have too much criteria on what a book had to meet in the profile we loaded, but now I’m in the middle of fixing that problem.”

Walling also hope to create an alternative to microfilm. He believes that a lot of students don’t know what it is or how to use the machine.

Sophomore Krista Porter, who has worked in the library for four semesters, thinks that transitioning to a new director can be hard on some people, but she believes Walling is doing the “best he knows how.”

“I like how he’s trying to get rid of things we don’t use,” Porter said.

Walling first became interested in research and helping people in that aspect in his undergraduate program. Walling graduated from the University of Michigan and worked in the government documents department at the Hatcher Graduate Library while in his master’s program.

Walling said he most enjoys working with colleagues, not only in the library or around campus, but in the tight-knit library community in Kansas. As the chair of the private academic library section of the Kansas Library Association, he is able to meet “all different types of librarians” at other private schools in the state.

Walling was also appointed to be on the State Library Board of Kansas. This board oversees public libraries and creates projects and activities for libraries to implement.

When not spending time working on projects and activities for libraries, he enjoys spending time outdoors and traveling.