Faculty Spotlight on Faith Bradham

Thursday, September 14, 2023

Faith Bradham is the Reference Librarian and Library Chair at Bakersfield College. She started working at BC in 2015 after graduating from Indiana University.  When asked to describe her role as a librarian, she responds, “Our primary objective is to help students research. So, we’re teaching students how to research, and helping them with any research issues that they might have.” Faith explains that this might include finding articles on certain topics, utilizing the library’s databases, and of course, finding books for their research needs. 

Part of her role at BC also includes teaching. “(The librarians) also conduct ‘orientations’, which are when faculty members ask us to come to their classes and we'll teach a lesson on how to do research.” She also does some more focused training for various classes. “I taught some Psychology students this semester how to do a literature review for their final research project,” says Faith, “it can be very customized and specific.” 

After graduate school, Faith started looking for places to start her career in the library field. “I started intentionally applying to community colleges,” she explains, “because I really believed in the value and the mission of community colleges.” She was hired at BC and has been here for almost 8 years. When asked about her favorite part of being on staff at BC, she says, “My favorite part is getting to develop a relationship with the students. I love getting to know them, understand them, and knowing that I impacted a student is really important to me.” 

The role of a library has shifted over the past several years. The availability of resources through the Internet has changed the way students find and utilize resources. When asked why it is still important to have a library for students, Faith responds, “We regularly do assessments of students, and something we hear all the time is that students need a calm, quiet, and safe space to study. This is one of the few places on campus where the focus is research and study. They also have access to our computers if they do not have access to one of their own.” The library also has an abundance of resource materials available. “We have over 80,000 books in print, and more than 200,000 online as well,” she says, “and we can help students navigate and evaluate those resources to find the information that they need.”