Alumni Spotlight

Bill Drew

Class of 1974

Title: Systems/Technical Services Librarian   
Background:In the casting about world of social networks, Bill Drew is a DJ of sorts, tucked away in his back library office leaning into his keyboard to fill Facebook, twitter, and his blog with chatter of the day, to ask questions, or simply to tell you Bill “won’t buy Kindle yet!” (needs wi-fi, and needs to be open to his preferred cell network.) There are a handful of people in every web-social circle who make a business of constant status updates, twitters and the like, but Bill’s posts lean heavily toward the useful and inquisitive, although he does let slip a few “going home, TGIF” to break up the tech chatter.

Bill is an assistant professor and librarian of systems and tech services for TC3, and recently ended a stint as interim director of the library. He is a TC3 graduate of the class of 1974, the last TC3 class to graduate at the campus in Groton. Following TC3, he went to the Cornell University Agriculture School, where he earned a master’s degree in wildlife biology, which he “never worked in.” After working a series of related and unrelated jobs around the Ithaca area, including work at the libraries at Cornell, he decided to pursue a degree in library science. He earned his M.S. from Drexel University. He worked at SUNY Morrisville before coming to TC3.

“It’s changed drastically since I started at Morrisville,” he says. “Then, there was only one microcomputer for the whole campus.

At TC3, Bill offers assistance to students, staff, and faculty with questions about accessing certain aspects of the library system.

”I answer a lot of technical questions on different subjects, latching on to a document, instant messaging, etc,” he says. “I also have a lot of interaction with faculty.” And he also gets to wear the hat of experimental academic/technology guru.

Follow Bill for a few weeks and you’ll see he’s tracking various web-borne debates and discussions regarding applications of technology, ethical considerations of such applications, and more.

“There are some applications that seem to have staying power and are well-established. But there are always others emerging, and I try to stay on top of what’s happening.”

You can find Bill in his back office at the TC3 library, amidst his screens and under the gaze of a Star Trek poster, exploring digital frontiers.