Southern Crescent Technical College (SCTC) was formed in the summer of 2010 as the result of a merger between Flint River Technical College and Griffin Technical College. Southern Crescent Technical College has five convenient locations with libraries located on the Griffin and Flint River campus along with a computer lab acting as a virtual library at the Henry County Center. The SCTC Libraries combined with Distance Education and Tutoring & Mentoring create the Library and Academic Support Services department that is overseen by Executive Director, Kate Williams. The mission statement for the Library and Academic Support Services is to transform lives and perspectives through strategic promotion of effective strategies for teaching and learning with the ultimate goal of achieving increased retention and graduation rates among students at Southern Crescent Technical College.
The three goals of the Library and Academic Support Services are accessibility, empowerment, and retention:
Accessibility–Student success depends, in part, upon adequate and accessible resources; the Library and Academic Support Services unit will contribute to student success by maintaining and enhancing access to relevant information and training.
Empowerment – Library and Academic Support Services will provide opportunities for the academic, professional, and personal growth of students and faculty.
Retention – Library and Academic Support Services will support the retention initiatives of Academic Affairs.
Recently, Southern Crescent Technical College received a grant from the Upson READ Foundation to encourage literacy in Thomaston, Georgia. James Peas and Meagan Graves, SCTC Early Childhood Education Instructors along with Tiia Kunnapas, Librarian and Candra Pitts, Library Assistant at our Thomaston campus collaborated on creating eleven Reading Adventure Packs. The packs contain everything an Early Childhood Education student would need to deliver a lesson on one of the STEAM subject areas. Each bag focuses on a different STEAM area and contain four books on that topic. The bags also contain an activity that uses manipulatives already in the classroom, a song and a supplemental list of books available from the library on that topic. Early Childhood Education students can check out the bags to use in their practicums or as a guide to create their own Reading Adventure Packs for their internships. The bags are cataloged and stored in the Thomaston campus library where the students can come to check them out. Both of our SCTC libraries have an extensive collection of children books and our librarians offer guidance on choosing other related books and topics suitable for the classroom. This project has created a closer relationship between the SCTC libraries and the Early Childhood Education program and has also introduced an innovative teaching technique that not only addresses literacy but also math and science.
Overall, the SCTC Libraries are dedicated to providing the highest level of service to the College community and are here to help students succeed in whatever their curiosity inspires them to do!
Visit the SCTC Libraries website at https://www.sctech.edu/libraries to learn more.