By COLE REIF
Great Bend Post
At the end of each academic year, Barton Community College Library Director Darren Ivey creates a report that shows the inventory of the library, located in the center of the Great Bend campus.
Following the 2024 academic year, Barton’s library had 11,657 print books. Ivey said for a community college the size of Barton’s, the library should have approximately 28,000 books.
"What we're working on right now is trying to align our collection to the curriculum," said Ivey. "We're going through the course catalog and textbooks. We're trying to find subjects, names and topics. We're trying to find books that answer those to align better."
Ivey said the library staff has removed roughly 5,000 books over the past few years because they were either outdated or did not conform to the curriculum.
Despite having thousands of eBooks, or digital books, Ivey told the Barton Board of Trustees Tuesday that there is still value in physical books.
"There is research that says that actually holding a book improves reading comprehension, instead of reading from the screen," said Ivey. "There are some people that can't read on the screen because of various issues. I want to provide lots of formats. I'm perfectly fine with having all of these eBooks, but I also want to provide print services."
Through the Barton Community College Foundation, there is a library endowment where citizens can donate funds to purchase library materials.