I began my first library job when I was 15 years old at my local public
library. The library director offered me a job as a student page because of the
long hours that I spent at the library reading and volunteering to help other
younger children find books to read. She recognized that I knew the library at
least as well as the other staff and thought I might like to work there, too.
Throughout the next two and a half years, I learned many things about different
parts of working in a library. I assisted the children’s librarian with story
hours and the summer reading programs. I learned some tips on minor book repair
and proper storage of magazines. I helped with weeding the collection and
running the annual book sale, and through shelf-reading the juvenile section, I
became an "expert" on the children’s collection. Assisting patrons at
the desk with circulation of materials and reference questions was also a large
part of my duties, in addition to shelving and straightening areas of the
library.
As I neared my high school graduation and prepared for college, I thought I would like to continue working in a library, learning more about how to develop an organized and friendly library environment. When I began my freshman year in college, I also accepted a placement in the periodicals department of the college library. In this position, I learned the process of receiving items, preparing periodicals for binding, minor repair of periodicals and issues surrounding organization and growth of collections. During one summer, I was placed in charge of a major shift of periodicals. It was my job to measure shelves and calculate for growth, as well as to do the actual shifting of the volumes.
During the other college breaks, I was given the opportunity to assist in several other areas of the library in addition to periodicals. For example, I also assisted with the interlibrary loan document delivery service, book repair and acquisitions. I helped with unpacking the mail, reconciling invoices, and entering computer data for acquisition of books and periodicals. One summer, I also assisted the cataloging department with the conversion project as we changed the collection from Dewey Decimal to Library of Congress classification. During this project, I assisted with relabeling the books, cataloging new items, and creating new book labels. I also received valuable experience working with their on-line computer system during periods of watching the circulation/ reserve desk.
After two and a half years of working in the library, I accepted a position as an apprentice teacher of Chinese in the modern language department. However, soon after leaving the library, my supervisor in the periodicals department became quite ill and had to take a six-month leave of absence. Because I was the only person trained to perform some of her job duties, special arrangements were made for me to work a few hours a week just to keep the work flow moving until she was able to come back to work.
The experiences in my college library helped to convince me that I belonged working in a library, and I resolved to earn a master’s degree in library science. However, I knew that it was time for me to take a break in my schooling for a while. When I finished my undergraduate courses in December of 1994, I began working in the college bookstore in an effort to earn some money to pay for my wedding the following June. This experience taught me some aspects of business that I think will be valuable as a librarian, such as working with invoices and watching what items people bought and read while in the bookstore. I also learned that I loved working with books and people.
Since my husband was still working on his bachelor’s degree in education, I thought it would be wise to work until he finished school before attempting to attend school full-time again. I began working at Booth Library (Eastern Illinois University) in October of 1995 as a full-time circulation staff employee. Six months later, I moved into the interlibrary loan department. For the following four years, I worked in interlibrary loan full time, and I learned much more about how libraries work than I could have learned as a student. My position called for proficiency in a variety of computer programs, patron assistance and record keeping. I assisted my supervisor on a number of special projects, which included copyright compliance reports, statistics on turn-around times, and full-text database content.
One of the benefits of that position was a tuition waiver for classes, so I enrolled in the graduate program to earn a master’s degree in English literature. Originally, my focus was going to be strictly on medieval literature, so most of my courses reflect this interest. A couple of my classes, however, were in children’s literature, and I find that my excitement for this area is even greater than that of medieval literature. I love children’s books, and I enjoy researching them. I believe writing for children is one of the best things a person can do. Bringing the child and the book together is even better. This is what I want to do. I have noticed that in discussing my research with adults, my enthusiasm over children’s books can be very contagious. I think that I can bring the same enthusiasm to children, which is why I would like to focus my library career on children and youth services.
Now that my husband has finished his degree, the timing is right for me to
pursue my master’s in library science. I am currently attending the University
of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, School of Information and Library Science,
where I am pursuing teacher certification as well as a master's degree in
library science. Since I still have real-world obligations, I worked full
time at the Kathrine R. Everett Law Library (on the UNC campus) for two years,
where I managed both interlibrary loan and stacks maintenance, while I also
attended classes full-time. I have recently begun my first year as a
school library media specialist at North End Elementary School in Roxboro,
North Carolina.