‘Like losing a family member’

During her almost 46 years of service at the Southwestern Community College library, Director Ann Coulter has welcomed tens of thousands of students and helped bring the library to the digital age. Coulter is now looking forward to her June retirement. However, this wasn’t necessarily how she expected life to go.

Graduating from Corning High School in the early 1970s, Coulter soon married her husband John. A member of the U.S. Navy, John was stationed in New York, with Coulter joining him in Brooklyn. They later moved to Long Island where Coulter had her first job in a library.

In 1977, John ended his time in the Navy and the pair moved back to Southwest Iowa, this time settling in Creston. Here, Coulter enrolled at SWCC and earned a degree in business and accounting. In September 1980, Coulter took a job working in the SWCC library, later becoming the director in 1998.

In the last 46 years, almost every aspect of the library has changed.

“I actually have walls,” Coulter said. “Originally, these shelves were my outside walls. And I remember the first TRS 80 computers coming on campus. That was like, OK, we’re going to have a computer department now.”

From the bulky TRS 80s of the 1980s to the slim laptops of today, computers have remained an important part of library services. Students can now even rent laptops, among other technological needs, from the library.

While now commonplace, Coulter remembers when internet first came to campus, also prompting the creation of the college’s website.

“The library was pretty instrumental in getting the internet, our website,” Coulter said. “I created our website. Somebody else was basically in charge of it. The server sat in the library back room - I’m thankful it’s not there anymore.”

While having many resources online was exciting, Coulter also remembers the panic Y2K brought. Library staff held on to readers’ guides and other source material which had already been input online, just in case.

“That was quite the time. Then we could get rid of those; we could go electronic,” Coulter said.

Along with technology and walls, Coulter has helped the library feel like home to SWCC’s students.

“The plants are good. We’ve added more seating,” Coulter said. “When we got the fireplace, we added more just to make it a little more comfortable. We have a coffee bar. Right now we have the quilts up.”

However, through all the changes and updates, Coulter said the people have remained her favorite part of the job.

“Whether it’s students or whether it’s faculty and staff, that’s the most fun part, working with people,” Coulter said. “The number of students has changed dramatically from ... Back then it was like 500, 600 students, and now we’re talking 1,600 students.”

One of her favorite memories involves a group of Puerto Rican students experiencing their first Iowa winter.

“There were quite a few of them that year and they had no idea about snow,” Coulter said. “We had to teach them how to make snowballs and we taught them how to make snowmen in the courtyard out here. We took them out sleigh riding.”

With her retirement, Coulter will also be leaving her work family behind.

“When I first started, it was the running joke that she didn’t get to retire, that eventually I would just stuff her and she would sit in the chair,” Library Assistant Rebecca Slick said. “The thought of her leaving, it’s like losing a family member.”

Slick began working in the library in 2019 and said learning both from and with Coulter has been a blessing.

“Taking the classes, working with her, learning all the differences within the library and with classroom technology, we’re learning together with AI,” Slick said, “it’s really a collaborative effort. It’s really a great work environment.”

With an official retirement date of June 30, the library still has some time to prepare for Coulter’s absence.

With almost 46 years under her belt, Coulter said her main advice for the library staff is to listen.

“You need to listen to what the students are asking you, but also the faculty and staff,” Coulter said. “Lately it was, how are you using AI? How do you cite it in your papers if you’re allowed to use it in there? We’ve created some posters that actually are now up in the hallway to do that and just figuring out the next piece, because we do the technology in the classroom, always try to think ahead to what maybe the faculty don’t know about that they could use that would make their teaching more engaging or it would make it easier for them.”

With Coulter consistently gaining more knowledge to help both students and staff, SWCC President Lindsay Stoaks thanked her for the many years of service.

“Ann embodies the spirit of lifelong learning,” Stoaks said. “Throughout her career, she has navigated remarkable technological changes, continually adapting while helping others to do the same. As she approaches retirement in June, she will close an extraordinary chapter at Southwestern, etching her name in the college’s history.”

Coulter said that she doesn’t have any major plans for retirement, but will eventually do some traveling. Plus, there’s always quilting!

“I keep telling John that I’m working because I’m supporting my quilt habit,” Coulter joked.