My Library, My Story.
“We’ve chosen another person for the circulation position, but would you be interested in a position as our Marketing & PR Assistant?”
Those were the words that changed things for the better in my life. I was at my retail job I was steadily becoming burned out with, when I got the call. It was my goal since college to work in a library, working retail and food service jobs until I could get my master's degree. And when my mother told me the Craighead County Jonesboro Public Library was hiring, I applied that night. A few weeks and a few interviews later, here I am almost a month later writing this blog post.
Logistically working in a library should’ve been a no-brainer for me. Since I was little I was constantly reading anything I could find. From Nancy Drew to National Geographic, I would devour them and still be starving for more. And what better way to satiate my hunger than libraries? This trend of going to the library, whether it was the Harrisburg Public Library to my school library, throughout my life from elementary school, to spending any free time I had in my high school library and coming to CCJPL for their movie programs with friends. Eventually I became a student-worker my senior year there shelving books and working circulation. From there it was work study in the Ouachita Baptist University’s library, mainly digitizing yearbooks, spending hours standing at the copy machine, scanning each page and spending many more hours on Photoshop editing them while listening to audiobooks and YouTube video essays, enjoying every minute. During COVID, when gathering in large groups for the annual fundraising show, Tiger Tunes, was a no go, I spent time in the basement with the archives converting VHS tapes of Tune shows long since past to DVDs and eventually editing a few to showcase them on the Cone-Bottoms lawn.
With every stage of my life I was connected to libraries and their staff, and I am now joining their ranks. I’m going to work to make others feel like the library is the no-brainer place to be, whether it's for hanging out, utilizing our many resources, attending programs, or simply getting a good book.
And with that, I will see you around.