Laura Wood
"My goal is to figure out how this library can continue with and increase its ability to partner with the rest of the institution, and to meet needs that maybe people haven’t even recognized yet."
How does a library remain relevant in an internet-dependent, post-card catalog world? Laura Wood, who became director of the Class of 1945 Library this summer, thinks about that question a lot.
“It’s a constant learning process for me,” she says, “of how we can work with technology and with content in digital forms and maximize the library’s ability to help faculty and students as they pursue their intellectual questions and conversations —as well as assignments. My goal is to figure out how this library can continue with and increase its ability to partner with the rest of the institution, and to meet needs that maybe people haven’t even recognized yet.”
Wood is only the fifth person to lead the venerable Class of 1945 Library since it opened in 1971. She succeeded Gail Scanlon, who retired in 2021. Jacquelyn H. Thomas ’45, ’62,’69 (Hon.); P’78, P’79, P’81, who held the position for 33 years (1977-2010), had the longest tenure.
Wood discovered her passion for library studies while pursuing a master’s degree in religion from Yale Divinity School. “I came to the realization that I did not want to be a writer,” she says, “and that if I were to pursue being a professor, writing would be a major component. That got me thinking, What’s closer to what I do love? Finding information, supporting other people’s research, organizing things —the way that libraries do.”
Wood went on to earn an M.S. in information from the University of Michigan School of Information and an M.B.A. from Goizueta Business School at Emory University. After working in libraries at Emory, Harvard Divinity School and Tufts University, she most recently held the position of associate university librarian for research and education at Harvard University.
“I loved working in research universities and with librarians, but I didn’t get to work with students, and I didn’t get to participate in the life of the university in any kind of broad way,” Wood says of her decision to come to Exeter. Her view of the library’s role —and her own — ensures she will fit right in.
“I think of myself as an educator,” she says, “and I was looking for an opportunity where I could better identify as a member of a community of educators.”
— Sarah Pruitt '95
Editor's note: This article first appeared in the fall 2022 issue of The Exeter Bulletin.
