Barbara Minich Weaver is 'Woman of Distinction'
Comet staff report

Weaver

B a r b a r a M i n i c h Weaver was honored recently as a Woman of Distinction at a dinner ceremony held at the Hellenic Center in Merrillville.

She was one of ten women selected by the YWCA of Northwest Indiana to be this year's award winners. She was nominated by her organization, Ivy Tech Community College. Over 500 people were in attendance for this celebrated event.

The honorees were chosen for their distinguished and exemplary contributions over the years. Weaver is the Regional Library Director for the Ivy Tech Northwest campuses located in Gary, East Chicago, Valparaiso, and Michigan City.

Since 1993 she has been instrumental in developing and upgrading the resources of each library. She started a small library from virtually nothing at its youngest campus in Michigan City in the late 90s. In the last few years she was heavily involved in the planning and design of a brand new library for Valparaiso's $36 million campus building, recently dedicated.

She is also largely responsible for establishing and operating a regional tutoring program offered at the libraries - where college students can get one-onone help with their courses. She staffs this peer tutoring service with upper level academically strong students who can relate easily to other students.

During 1995-96, Weaver was selected to represent the Ivy Tech Northwest Region in a statewide Leadership Academy seminar series. Currently she is actively promoting the new 2007 Northwest Indiana reading literacy initiative called "Books to Bridge the Region: Connecting our Communities through Reading."

Before joining Ivy Tech, her activity with the American Library Association in the early 90s led her to travel to different parts of the country. She served as chairperson for LIRT - a national subcommittee of ALA - that promotes information literacy in all types of libraries. She continues this interest locally by providing library literacy instruction to core college classes.

As for community involvement, she said she has found joy in inspiring others through music and good books. Over the years she has used her musical ability to serve as a pianist on praise teams for several Carroll County and northwest Indiana area churches. She also started church libraries for two of the churches in the early 70s and 80s.

These achievements are made all the more meaningful because Weaver copes with a severe hearing loss. Since the age of three when meningitis destroyed 80% of her hearing, she has compensated for this loss by a heavy reliance on hearing aids, a strongly developed set of lip reading skills and writing skills, and a determination to overcome and to excel.

Weaver is a 1968 honors graduate of Carroll High School. She has a bachelor's degree from Ball State University and a master's in library science from Indiana University. She started out in the library field by working two years in the Logansport-Cass County Public Library before moving north.

Having grown up in the Deer Creek farming area, she said she is grateful for her family and country roots. She is the daughter of Betty Lou Minich of Flora and the late J. Ernest Minich. She has one brother, David Minich of Logansport. She is married to Tom Weaver and they live outside DeMotte.