Arriving in a different place

Changes are coming to the Palmer Memorial Library located on the Texarkana College campus when A&M moves out of TC to their new campus, located near Bringle Lake, this summer.

"We are making a decision now to decide if we are going to partner on part of the library or if we are just going to go out on our own and have our own TC library," Texarkana College President Dr. Alan Rasco said.

Even with concerns about the A&M move, some feel that it will actually benefit the school.
"I think it is good that the schools are splitting up because it gives more of a choice to students," sophomore art major Darlene Edwards said.

On the issue of the books and online databases, TC is looking at a couple of possibilities.
"A&M's volumes and books for their junior and senior master level will be pulled, and then ours will stay," Dr. Rasco said. "What we are looking at now is the catalog system and the software and hardware, and whether or not we are going to just partner with them [A&M] for a little while or go ahead and purchase our own."

Plans are being worked out on dealing with the extra space that will result from A&M's move.

"What we would like to have is a developmental education department," Dr. Rasco said. "A&M will be referring students to us for developmental education, so that would be a perfect place for kind of a one stop shop for testing and assessment and developmental education."

As of right now, only one new library faculty member, a Director of Library Services, is scheduled to be hired, though not because of the A&M move.

"Even if we stay as partners, we still need someone over here to run the library," Dr. Rasco said. "We are currently spending $544,000 a year on our library ... and it wouldn't take a lot more to have our own library."

TC is also looking at grants to help with library and technology funding.

"We would have to replace the technology. All the computers over there now are A&M's computers, so we will have to replace all those," Dr. Rasco said. "That could be one area that we could use some grant money in."

An official date for A&M's library exit is not known, although Dr. Rasco said they will more than likely be out by the end of July.

"We have had different meetings with the library staff to reassure them that nothing is really going to change," Dr. Rasco said. "They have worked together [TC and A&M] for a long time ... so it's a good relationship and they kind of hate to break that off but I don't think there will be a problem with the conversion."