Tina D. Rollins is the Director of the William R. and Norma B. Harvey Library at Hampton University. She completed her B.S. degree in Criminal Justice at Old Dominion University and her M.L.S. degree at North Carolina Central University. While at NCCU she was a member of the Diversity Scholars Program which was an Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) funded program to recruit students of diverse backgrounds into the Library and Information Sciences field. This experience led to an interest in promoting and researching diversity within librarianship. Rollins also studied International Librarianship abroad in Copenhagen Denmark during her studies at NCCU.
At Hampton, she has created initiatives to improve information literacy, outreach services and professional development. The initiatives have led to increases in library programming, grantsmanship, fundraising and faculty and staff communication. The library is successfully rebuilding its brand and building cross campus collaboration and partnerships. These opportunities create a wealth of potential resources to improve library services and research efforts throughout the university.
Rollins has committed herself to bringing awareness to the lack of diversity within all facets of the LIS field. She has served as principal investigator on a grant awarded to Hampton University by the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS). This award entitled, The Hampton University Forum on Minority Recruitment and Retention in the LIS Field, convened a national forum in August 2018 to discuss effective strategies and action planning to address the lack of diversity within the LIS field.
In 2020, subsequent funding was awarded by IMLS for the project grant entitled Advancing the Recruitment, Retention and Inclusion of People of Color within the Library and Information Science Field. This three-year grant seeks to work with leaders and administrators in LIS to build and assess strategies to address the continued issues related to diversity within the field.
Tina Rollins serves as an adjunct faculty member for Syracuse University’s Library and Information Science program. She is a member of the MLIS Advisory Board for Old Dominion University. Since 2018, Rollins has served on the board of the Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) Library Alliance as treasurer. Rollins has presented at various regional, state and national conferences on topics such as diversity, recruitment, library leadership, change management and grant writing. She holds various memberships in both regional and national organizations related to the field. Additionally, she is an adult literacy tutor with a local literacy organization. She currently resides in Newport News, VA with her husband where she enjoys watching movies and bad reality television.
