Mark Hanna:

Normally when people think about their school librarian they picture an aged, frumpy-looking woman, wire-framed glasses strategically placed on the end of her nose, hair pulled up into a high, tight bun ensuring that no unruly wisp escapes conformity, and shushing anyone who raises their voice above a slight whisper.

That is not the case for Amarillo College's Librarian Mark Hanna, a youthful and athletic-looking, middle-aged man who greets anyone who enters his office with a smile.

Hanna was born in Amarillo in 1948. He attended Amarillo High School, where he played on the baseball team with Dr. Paul Matney, associate vice president of instruction and division chair of language, communication and fine arts.

"Mark is as good of a guy as you're going to know," Matney said. "He was a heck of a ball player."

Hanna graduated in 1967 and enrolled at AC, then graduated in 1969 as a non-major. From AC he went to West Texas State University and received his bachelor's degree in American history in 1971 and his master's degree in the same subject in 1973.

After he graduated Hanna went to work for the Stu Forrester Truck Co. as an office manager. "That was very interesting, and my boss was one of our current board of regents," he said.

Hanna married his wife, Angie, in 1974 and has been married for 30 years. They have two boys who both got their start at AC.

"One is 25 and a landscaper and computer technician who works near Houston," he said. "The other is 21 and currently attending Texas Tech University and majoring in mechanical engineering."

After he was married, Hanna went back to school at North Texas State University and got his master's degree in library science. He returned to Amarillo and worked as a librarian at the Amarillo Public Library.

"I worked there for 3 years as the circulation librarian and as the head of reference," Hanna said. "From there I went to work as a medical librarian at the Texas Tech Health Sciences Center for five years."

Hanna came to AC in January 1985 and will complete 20 years here in January.

"My first job at AC was coordinator for collection and service developer," he said. "Then I was the assistant director for public service for 18 years."

In June 2004, he became the college librarian. "I just love it," he said.

Even though Hanna is in a management position, he said he wants to be more than just a manager.

"I always wanted to be a practicing librarian, and even though I'm the director of the library, I still want to help students and faculty," he said. "That's one reason why I chose to be called 'college librarian.'"

The title for Hanna's job previously was director of the Amarillo College Library Network, but he asked to have it changed to college librarian to reflect his desire to continue to work as a librarian.

"I'm proud of librarianship," he said. "It's a vital job in education. Technology changes with time, but this still has to be done."

Hanna said he expects to make some changes to the library.

"I hope to make this library into a better facility for the students, to meet their needs, develop the tools and services we want to offer to students and keep up with the technological advances," he said.

He has already set the ball rolling on these goals he said. "Right now we are starting a strategic planning process that will include many groups, including students, while envisioning local and national technological, educational and library trends," Hanna said.

"And we will try to look again at what our mission is and what goals and objectives we need to accomplish."

Hanna said he encourages students to use their voices and speak up about changes they want to see in the library.

"Things are changing all the time," he said. "The library will be effective in the midst of this change by doing the right thing optimally in changing for the students. That's why we need input from students."