Long and Possibly Boring

Gobula "interviewed" me through email for his introductory library school class. It's nothing particularly exciting, but since I went to the trouble of typing it up I thought I'd share it with the rest of you.

What combination of education, training, and experiences prepared you for this particular profession and position?

I fell into the library profession by accident. I can't say it was completely foreign to me, since my parents read to me as a child and I became an avid reader and library user as I grew up. At one point while pursuing my undergraduate degree at Emporia I even contemplated getting an MLS after graduating, but my wife--who worked at the campus library and saw what the library students studied--discouraged me. I had already, at that point, decided to be a high school English teacher because of my love of reading and books, so I decided to stick with that. After a 3-year detour through seminary (90-hour graduate degree), I started looking for work. My wife's principal didn't want to lose her so he offered me a job. He didn't have any English openings at the time, but he needed a librarian. After some contemplation, I decided to accept the job.

I start with all of that background because I think my foundation for being a successful librarian came from growing up with books and an affinity to the printed word as authoritative. I had also spent plenty of time in school researching and writing; research papers were one of my particular talents, in fact, and my well-developed information literacy prepared me to help others with their searches. And, of course, my extensive time spent as a student and my training as a teacher helped. I was very attuned to the academic mindset, yet didn't believe in pursuing learning simply for it's own sake but instead wanted to help others learn alongside me.

That said, I accepted that first job with absolutely no library experience and suddenly found myself responsible for running a library program all by myself. Thankfully, I wasn't truly alone because I was part of a large district and had the help of many colleagues from other schools and our administrative offices. And there were very few expectations since my predecessor had been truly atrocious, which gave me ample time to learn. The other key element that helped me figure out what to do, believe it or not, was library school. Somehow through that combination of colleagues, on the job learning, and classes, I was able to figure out how to be a high school media specialist. I discovered the YALSA Best Books for Young Adults list, for instance, and learned the titles of many good books to order. Someone taught me the Big Six as a great way to teach research. I immersed myself in online databases and developed lessons for teaching students how to use them. We learned how to make websites for one our classes so I made one for my media center. I made it my goal to become an expert librarian and constantly worked toward that end, learning from as many different sources as possible.

I underwent a similar learning curve as a public YS librarian. It was a new environment and my first time working with kids younger than middle school (I'd never even been to a storytime, much less done one). I was no longer taking classes, but I used the advice of colleagues and professional reading to learn as much as I could. I think I set a record for number of training hours in our system. I scoured the professional websites and booklists. I was lucky enough to be selected to attend conferences. My manager found time in the schedule for me to observe other YS librarians do storytimes and programs. I started by figuring out what I needed to learn and then found sources to help me learn it.

What do you actually do during the course of a day?

Lots of different things, which is part of what I love about my job--the variety. My main duty is customer service--sitting at the YS desk and being available to assist patrons with finding what they need in the library. In terms of helping kids, it's usually either finding something to help them with homework or helping them find something to read. So you have to both have a grip on information searching and the research process and you have to know a lot of literature to be able to provide readers advisory. It helps to know how teachers think and the types of assignments they typically give. It also helps to know kids so that you can figure out what books to recommend to which readers. But you can't limit yourself to knowing just that, because sometimes kids ask for informational books for fun purposes or sometimes you have to help at the adult desk. You have to know the library and how to help people find the information they want. To prepare myself for that, I spend time reading book reviews and scouring booklists, looking at new books as they come in, studying research guides, practicing with databases, and developing skills that will help me help patrons. There is always something new to learn.

Aside from helping patrons, a large portion of my time is spent on programming. It's a cycle of planning the programs, setting up the calendar, marketing them, and doing them. Each element takes time. It probably takes me 2 hours to prepare each half hour storytime. For craft activities I have to figure out what is developmentally appropriate for the target age group, come up with activities, organize the needed supplies, make samples and directions, monitor the actual event while interacting with the kids and their parents, and clean up afterwards. Book discussion groups require reading the book and preparing discussion questions. Hiring a presenter means figuring out who is out there, making contact, coordinating calendars, managing a budget, marketing the event, monitoring the event, making sure they get paid, and sending out thank you cards. These and other things are all part of what I do any given day at my job.

Then there is the physical environment of the library. I make displays and bulletin boards. Sometimes we looks at moving the shelves and computers around. We try to provide educational toys and literacy activities for the kids to play with while they're here. Poetry and art opportunities for the teens. I've painted furniture before to have more appealing colors. Cleaning the puppets. Making sure we have flyers for our programs and that they're pleasingly displayed. We provide notebooks full of booklists to help kids find good things to read. Finding and/or creating these booklists can take a lot of time. Sometimes we work on signage and making sure all of the shelves are labelled helpfully.

Then there is collection maintenance. Making sure all of the books are in order and getting rid of older ones as they wear out and become dated.

And sometimes I have to help out with the other departments--check books out to patrons, check books back in, process holds, and the like.

Every so often I get to go shopping for craft supplies or program snacks or some such.

I almost forgot about meetings and trainings. There is probably something about once a week. It's important to keep updated on what's happening in the system and learn new things. Have input in new decisions. I'm currently head of the video game committee, for instance, so I have to plan those meetings and coordinate lots of people. We've written proposals to get the idea implemented and figured out what the initiative would look like. I've attended a symposium on gaming in libraries. There's always something new to talk about or plan or deal with or learn about.

And there is outreach. Sometimes I do storytimes at day cares. We visit schools to get new library card applications, do booktalks, and promote the summer reading club. Be a storyteller or have a booth at community events. Give presentations on early childhood literacy. And it takes time to make all of these contacts and prepare for them.

To what professional organizations do you belong?

Currently I am a member of the American Library Association and the Public Library Association subdivision and the Kansas Library Association. In the past I have also been a member of the Young Adult Library Services Association subdivision of the ALA.

What do you believe is important and/or meaningful about professional organization activities?

So far I have been more of a taker than a giver in terms of professional organizations. I haven't been very actively involved or contributed much, but I have made wide use of what they offer. I've learned much at conferences (PLA and KLA). I use their web resources quite often, especially booklists. And I've learned a lot from email listservs and blogs.

The most important thing, in my mind, is that you can't be a learning professional without colleagues. I've been lucky enough to be a librarian at two large systems, so I've been able to get training from, observe, and interact with the people I work with. If I'd been in a smaller setting, I would have had to rely on professional organizations even more. The best thing we can do to improve is share ideas, have professional discussions, and learn from each other. You have to be part of a professional community and have those connections with each other in order to really grow and thrive.