Rate My Professor Eric Kidwell

Eric A. Kidwell serves as Professor and Director of Houghton Memorial Library at Huntingdon College, positions he has held since 1987 and 1985, respectively. He also serves as the College's Title IX Coordinator. Kidwell earned his M.L.S. from Vanderbilt University (George Peabody College), B.S. in Finance magna cum laude from the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, B.A. in Art from Huntingdon College, EfM from the University of the South, and completed the ACRL/Harvard Leadership Institute at Harvard University. Under his leadership, the library expanded in 1989 with the Charles and Thelma Dixon Wing, doubling its size and adding an atrium, offices, classrooms, and collection spaces. In 2001, he oversaw the automation project transitioning to online catalogs and digital periodicals preservation. In 2019, he advised on the Caroline Slawson Commons redesign, introducing collaborative study areas, equipped rooms, and 24/7 access.

Kidwell emphasizes inclusive, student-centered library services, developing LibGuides on topics like COVID-19 and Ukraine, and programming including Constitution Day and Martin Luther King Day observances, Salon literary readings, and the 'Good Trouble' mini-conference. A Beta Phi Mu member, he received the Alabama Library Association Intellectual Freedom Award (2007), Alabama chapter Association of College & Research Libraries Sue O. Medina Significant Contribution Award (2015), and ATIXA Distinguished Service Award (2022). He serves on the ATIXA Advisory Board and Publications Committee, and has been active in the American Library Association and Alabama Library Association. Key publications include 'Program Connects First-Year Students and Their Families to the College Community' (E-Source for College Transitions, 2008, co-authored with M. Terry Conkle and Maureen K. Murphy), 'Koalas, LibGuides and Chert, Oh My!: Using LibGuides as an Alternative Student Research Assignment' (2013), and 'Using Chemistry to Understand Nature from the Waters of the Blue Lagoon to the Composition of the Brown Marmorated Stink Bug' (2020, co-authored). Kidwell has presented extensively at ATIXA conferences on Title IX in faith-based institutions, Alabama Library Association events on library administration, and others on first-year experiences. He directed the Liberal Arts Symposium for most of its years and co-led Huntingdon Plan international travel-study programs. He was interviewed by The Chronicle of Higher Education for 'The Library of the Future' (2022).