College News

SANFORD –Tara Guthrie, of Sanford, is Central Carolina Community College’s new Director of Library Services. As director, she works with a staff of 14 overseeing the college’s libraries at its Chatham, Harnett and Lee county campuses.

“I look forward to serving the college and the students in this capacity,” Guthrie said. “It is my goal to facilitate easy access to the information resources students need, and also to provide a welcoming environment in which they can work and study. I invite student input on how we can improve our services as well. These are the students’ libraries, and we are here to serve them.”

Chatham County and CCCC are building a joint public-college library at the college’s campus in Pittsboro. The 25,000-square-foot facility is scheduled to open for use in the fall. 

“I also look forward to working with the public library staff in Pittsboro on the new joint-use library there,” Guthrie said. “This is an exciting endeavor which will serve both the college and the public communities well.”

Guthrie came to Central Carolina after 13 years with the Carteret Community College library. During that time, she served in the positions of reference and instructional librarian, acquisitions librarian, system administrator for the library's automation system and online catalog, and also as interim director. She also served on the President's Strategic Planning Committee, the QEP Committee, the Arts and Humanities Committee, and various others. 

She served as director of District Two of the North Carolina Community College Learning Resources Association from 2008-2009. She currently serves on the organization’s Conference Planning Committee. 

Guthrie earned her Master of Library and Information Studies (MLIS) degree at the University of North Carolina-Greensboro in 1996. Her undergraduate degree, from UNC-Chapel Hill, is in music education. She taught music in the Carteret County public school system for one year before becoming a librarian.