by Clay V. Trainum

Year in and year out, students have cited MTSU’s Walker Library as one of their favorite places on campus. Given the resources available within the building, as well as its location, the library serves as a perfect hub for students to get work done, socialize, and maybe take a coffee break.

The library’s constant presence in a student’s life is due in no small part to the idea that, regardless of an individual’s major or concentration, every Blue Raider graduates from the library.

With this in mind, Walker Library has renewed its emphasis on student engagement to play a more active role in student life on campus. Due to the foot traffic and extended hours of the building, students are more likely to have interactions with librarians and staff than perhaps any other group of people on campus. Studies have shown that students who regularly engage with the library are more likely to attain higher grades and graduate.

But it’s deeper than that, explains student engagement librarian Shelly Salo, hired for the new position last May.

“A lot of the research backs up the academic reasons, and while that is important, it’s just as important to me to improve their overall student experience,” Salo said. 

“Engaging on campus is a quintessential part of attending college. When you think back to your time in college, you’re probably not always thinking about classes, but instead, your first thoughts are about your experiences and the memories you made. I want the library to be a part of that.”

The new librarian position is a vital part of the library’s student engagement initiative, as Salo was hired specifically to increase all engagement activities across the board. In her first few months, she hosted multiple successful events, such as a board game night with the MTSU Tabletop Club and a de-stress event as students prepared for midterms. Other future plans range from partnering with the Makerspace to working on a book club with the Margaret H. Ordoubadian University Writing Center, which is on the third floor of the library.

“Yes, the library is a hub for student learning, and we want all of MTSU’s students to be academically successful. We want them to grow as people as well,” Salo said. “The library should be a safe third place for students to go. They don’t have to pay to be here, and they can be here more than any other building on campus.

“They can come here, feel safe, study, hang out, whatever. I just want them to be here and be happy to be here.”

The library serves as an important cog in community-building for the MTSU campus as well, and the engagement efforts are a key part of that. Those familiar with the day-to-day happenings of Walker Library can see these communities getting built all over, whether it be through one of the aforementioned events or when students work with each other, such as trying to resolve a tricky 3D print job in the Makerspace.

Even if the library isn’t directly involved, the environment of the building makes for a place where ideas can be easily exchanged. It’s not just about building a connection with the library and campus, but also with fellow students.

That is the core of this engagement mission. The library wants students to feel comfortable working and interacting within the building. On the surface, some of these events may not seem immediately related to library services, but they offer an outlet for students to grow into more well-rounded people as they prepare for life after college. And for Salo, it offers a return to a time when she interacted with students every day.

“I used to be a full-time classroom teacher. I loved so much of that job and working so closely with students,” she said. “The opportunity to come here and interact with students to help them enjoy college a little bit more was too good of an opportunity.”

Party Time in the Library

Examples of some library student engagement activities:

Stress-Free Zone

Introduced in 2022, the library’s semiannual Stress-Free Zone is far and away the most popular student event that the library puts on. On the Tuesday evening before finals begin, hundreds of students flock to the first floor for a free meal, stress-relief activities, and therapy dogs from Music City Pet Partners. The library has cultivated partnerships all across campus to support the event, and students arrive early to make the most of their last hurrah before finals.

Trivia Night

Since its 2023 debut, Walker Library’s trivia night has become a staple of the calendar. Using an online interactive scoring system, hundreds of students have participated in the event over the years. The most recent edition featured pop culture categories as well as trivia specific to MTSU and the state of Tennessee.

Board Game Night

Board games are enjoying renewed interest, and in that spirit, Walker Library has partnered with the MTSU Tabletop Club to organize a series of board game events within the library. The night has proven popular as the space the building provides is more than enough for students to break into groups to play games that range from the simple ones that everyone grew up playing to the very complex.

RPG Jam

With the popularity of Stranger Things and a revival in role-playing games (RPGs), the library hosted its first-ever Tabletop Role-Playing Game Jam in October. Teams of students from across multiple majors came together to design their own RPG modules around the theme of Lost and Found. While some of the brainstorming took place on the night of the event, submissions continued into November.

Zine-Making!

Partnering with MTSU’s Center for Popular Music (CPM), the library hosted a Zine-Making night within the Makerspace. Students were encouraged to create their own while drawing inspiration from some of the items archived within CPM, which included the iconic early punk rock zine Sniffin’ Glue. 

De-Stress for Midterms

Shelly Salo organized her first De-Stress for Midterms event, a mini version of the library’s popular Stress-Free Zone, just days before the school’s 2025 fall break. It proved popular as more than 100 students made their way to the library’s first floor to interact with therapy dogs and pick up a snack.