Hayes didn’t set out to be a librarian. In fact, it was the fartherest thing from his mind. “I actually started out as a military policeman but after I got out of community college, I decided I would look for a job where I didn’t have to hurt one person. I knew absolutely nothing about libraries or what librarians did. I only knew the stereotypes,” he recalls. “I said to myself that I thought I wanted to be a librarian so that’s what I did.”

A graduate of the master’s program at the University of Oklahoma, Hayes came to RU as a reference librarian and instructor in 1980. Before being named to his current position, he was coordinator of public services and interim university librarian. In his 24 years at RU, he has seen McConnell Library make gigantic leaps, both numerically and electronically. When he talks about it, he looks like a proud new father.

“I’ve been in several public service positions here in the library and I have seen what goes on and am now looking for what should go on,” he says. Anything good can always be improved on and Hayes is ready to do some improving, exploring, strengthening, and educating. “”We bring resources to people that they don’t know even exist and we show them how to use them.”

Hayes is constantly thinking of ways to enhance an “already good thing.” “We’ve licensed a new service through Serial Solutions to provide content linking. With this service and additional staff we have recently hired, users will be able to seamlessly connect from an electronic abstract or index to full text. Anytime we have a journal in electronic form we can use this service to link from citations to journal articles. All the user has to do is to click on an icon. If we have a certain article available, it will appear on the screen.” Content Linking will decrease the amount of footwork involved in library research. “This is the next big expensive and essential thing that libraries will be doing and RU is already well-situated to do this,” Hayes proudly says.

Hayes says one of the greatest things that has happened in library service is VIVA, Virginia’s virtual library. He was on the first resource committee and was recently elected to serve on VIVA’s steering committee. “I guess that’s the most fun I’ve had professionally,” he recalls, adding, “VIVA meant so much to places like RU. VIVA provided all state colleges and universities with the same electronic library resources. He gives credit to Virginia taxpayers and legislators for “making a level playing field between the different schools.”

Hayes is not only devoted to his job, but also to his staff. He respects their service as well. His most proud moments at RU have been about them. “I’ve nominated two of the employees for Presidential Service Awards and both of them won. That really made me happy. That was great.”

Though this new librarian is certainly serious about his work, he does have fun and loves life. He’s well known for his creative Halloween costumes and unique form of humor. He’s been a Teletubbie and Yul Brynner. He’s even showed up on Halloween as a half man-half woman. “That one offended some folks. Don’t know why, it just did.” His Halloween celebrations sometimes conflict with library association meetings but, for the most part, it’s a traditional celebration that usually involves many of the library staff.

His wife is putting together a visual retrospective of his costumes.

Gently chiding himself about being a librarian, Hayes says, “My wife said if that guy from TV, the one who says everybody’s got a story, ever interviewed us that he wouldn’t have anything to write about.”