Thomas College’s Associate Director of Library Services, David Smith recently led the effort for a new material type, Open Resource, to be added to the Minerva cataloging system which enables students and faculty to find materials in the consortium’s shared public catalog.
The Minerva consortium will be the first of its kind in Maine to have this new material type, which will make it easier for everyone to find the resources they are looking for and increase the number of high-quality resources.
This is just one example of how David serves students and the community for accessibility to educational resources.
David is a big advocate for Open Educational Resources for students and faculty on campus.
“These resources help to lower the cost of information and content, and it helps make material more useable,” says David. “For Thomas College, and higher education more generally, it makes education more affordable for our students and gives our faculty greater academic freedom.”
David has been working at Thomas College for almost nine years and has worked as a librarian for more than 20 years.
“I love librarianship for a variety of reasons. I enjoy research in itself but also love helping others find and make use of information,” said David. “Libraries tend to be very cooperative and collaborative which is why I love the library field so much.”
This story was originally published in the Spring/Summer 2025 Thomas Magazine. Read the full magazine.