Sshhing sounds made with a finger to the lips. Stern looks that freeze students from making even the slightest breathing noises. Eyeglasses dangling from a jewelry-beaded string.
That's the stereotype of a librarian -- until meeting the University of Memphis' dean of libraries, Sylverna Ford.
Ford is no ordinary, book-thumping librarian. An advocate of reading and personal experience, yes -- but don't let that fool you, she said.
"I'm not sure that I ever really made a conscious decision to become a librarian," Ford said. "But, it was the field for me to go into and it's been a wonderful match for me."
Ford said she recalls a time when things weren't so wonderful.
Born in what she calls "blink-your-eyes-and-you're-through-it" Prince Edward County, Va., Ford said she experienced hardships in obtaining her education.
The year was 1959 and Ford was a fourth grader eager to learn. Segregation was beginning to shed its dark cloak of inequality and becoming a distorted idea of the past. Integration of schools across the United States became a priority for the education of children.
However, in small Prince Edward County, education was suffering from segregation. Teaching was abruptly halted because of resistance to the concept of integration. Public schools were closed and African-American children were sent home and not allowed to return. Ford said she was among those students.
"The school stayed closed for five years," Ford said.
Ford's sister went to live with their father in Baltimore while Ford and her brother lived with their mother in Virginia for a year. Ford said her mother read books to her and her sibling everyday so an education would still be possible.
The next year, Ford went to Baltimore, skipping the fourth grade and starting the fifth.
Despite her hardships, Ford earned a B.S. in textile science from the University of Maryland at College Park. Later she earned her Ph.D. with a concentration in library administration from the University of Pittsburgh.
Ford said through her experiences she learned first-hand experience and continual learning are intellectual stimulants necessary to the development of human character.
"Dr. Ford is 100 percent dedicated and tenacious in that she gets all departments involved with the internal operations of the University's libraries," library office associate Nancy Massey said.
As dean, Ford said she wants to increase the library's visibility, incorporating it into campus life. She said she also hopes to obtain more funding for the library from the local and state level.
