March Member Spotlight: Denison Libraries’ Popular Viewing Room
This month we shine the spotlight on Denison Libraries in Granville, Ohio In this feature, Director of Libraries Amanda Folk will share information about the Libraries and some of the challenges and successes they’ve recently experienced. Amanda is joined by Kent Huffman, Library Specialist III, to share a feature of the Libraries that has become a popular space for learning and engagement.
Can you tell our members a little bit about yourselves and Denison Libraries?
AF: My name is Amanda Folk, and I’m the new Director of Libraries at Denison. Prior to joining Denison in August 2025, I was the Head of the Teaching & Learning Department at The Ohio State University Libraries.
KH: My name is Kent Huffman, and I’ve been with Denison Libraries’ Circulation department since 2017, and I’m also a Denison graduate from the class of 1996. I am the current chair of our Communications Committee, our Stacks Supervisor, and the library’s Facilities Liaison.
AF: Denison is a fully residential undergraduate institution with about 2,400 students. We are called Denison Libraries because our current building is a combination of three different buildings, which makes our space a little quirky and fun. The original building — the William Howard Doane Library — was built in 1936 and received an addition in 1958. The Seeley G. Mudd Learning Center was built in 1981. Part of Doane Library was renovated in 2021 and was renamed Douthit Hall. We have over 3 million print and electronic books, over 75,000 print and electronic serials, and 750 databases. Denison Libraries has 24 staff members, of whom 11 are librarians.
Speaking of fun library spaces, can you tell us about your Viewing Room? How did the room evolve and how is it being used?
KH: Our Viewing Room has become one of our most-used spaces since its renovation in 2021. It’s essentially a large home theater room with 30 armchair-type seats with swivel-arm desktops, a central podium to control the audio/visual equipment, and a large HDTV screen and surround speakers. Professors can bring their classes there for discussions or film showings, students can reserve and use the space for club activities or personal use, and library staff often hold committee and staff meetings there. The room also provides a unique opportunity to feature Denison alumni who have found success in the film industry.
The idea for the alumni gallery evolved from our annual Halloween event, the “Haunted Library Tours.” In 2025, we hung ten horror movie posters in the room to serve as clues to solve a simple escape room-type puzzle. We framed and hung the posters several weeks in advance to help build up hype for the event, and the response from the Denison community was so positive that we decided to keep posters on the walls in that space as a permanent feature.
I had the idea to select films that represented work from Denison alumni for the space and reached out to Dr. Mark Bryan, chair of the Theater department, for some suggestions. Mark happily provided a lengthy roster of Denison graduates and their respective productions and also helped share the cost of printing the posters we selected with the library and the Denison Cinema department. I then designed and 3D printed “bronzed” plaques for each poster with the name, graduation year, and the role each alum had in production for all ten posters.
Can you share any tips or tricks to help others if they’re interested in setting up a similar viewing room?
KH: Absolutely! The biggest tip I can offer is to listen to feedback from your patrons and community…for us, this gallery became a feature because our community members were vocal about how much they liked seeing some decoration in what had previously been a relatively sterile, bare-walled learning space. Consider whether there is a space in your library that patrons respond to particularly well (or not!). What do they have to say about it?
Even if your library doesn’t have a dedicated “viewing room” space, you can use simple decoration as an opportunity to collaborate with your community about events that are important to you. If you have a space with bare walls, think about how you could use something simple like a framed print or two to showcase the library’s place in your community. Maybe you have space to display the work of local artists, students, or even staff members?
Do you have any other exciting things going on at your library this year?
AF: This is a year of significant transitions for Denison Libraries, which is both exciting and sometimes overwhelming. In addition to my arrival, Libraries staff have been navigating the transition to Alma (and now the upcoming release of Primo NDE) and to Workday. Collectively, we are reflecting on our organizational structure, the needs of our community, and the distinctive and essential expertise that the Libraries staff brings to Denison. Despite managing so many changes, we’ve had a lot of success this year, including LibraryFest, which is an event we hold in the library in partnership with other academic support units to welcome new first-year students. Our focus over the next year or so will be to leverage our existing success to create a vision for the library as a vibrant community intellectual hub and positioning ourselves to initiate innovative and impactful work.
