Cherry Li

Professor

“The library is really the hub, the pivotal point, of everything that happens on campus. We’re a lot more than just support: we’re a primary resource.”

“I was born in Shanghai, China and learned English very early on,” says Cherry Li of her childhood. It was a time when the totalitarian reforms of the Cultural Revolution swept her native land. “All the colleges and universities were closed,” she recalls. “But when I graduated from high school, China had again become more open.” Cherry traveled to Singapore, taught ESL classes, and gained master’s degrees in English Literature and Library Science. Eventually she found her way to the amazing resource that is the library at SMC.

“I teach classes that help students find what they need in the library. I show them the computer catalog and indexes, teach them a little about the Internet—the academic equivalent of the information superhighway—and get them familiar with ways to get all the information they need. I’m definitely ‘wired’,” she says with a laugh.

But aside from all the high-tech resources that have so rapidly become a part of library science, Cherry wants students to know that it’s people who make a library great. “One of the things students should know when they come to college is that librarians are very helpful people. So they shouldn’t be intimidated. Our library is a very open place, and you can always find help and instruction with us.”

Because of campus rebuilding and extension of library services, Cherry says people—and their nerves—are going to be stretched over the next couple of years. “We’re going to be offering as many services as we can, but circumstances are going to put some limits on us,” she says. “We hope that people will be willing to give us some cooperation and understanding.”

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