This chapter includes transcripts from two oral history interviews with public librarians in the Urbana-Champaign area. There is also one interview recording embedded in the chapter. The librarians share their paths to their careers, the highlights and challenges of their roles, and advice for undergraduate students interested in librarianship.

Upon completion of this chapter, learners should be able to

• Understand some librarians’ motivations for joining the field
• Identify paths for a career in public librarianship
• Recognize some highlights and challenges of public librarianship
• Consider their own skill sets and backgrounds in the context of librarianship

Methodology

Public librarians were identified through the Champaign Public Library (CPL) and the Urbana Free Library’s (UFL) contact pages online. CPL offers a “Book-a-Librarian” feature on their website and UFL has an email listed to contact them for reference questions. Librarians from both of the libraries quickly responded to my request to interview someone. One of the librarians asked to maintain anonymity, so “Librarian” will be used in lieu of their name. They also did not want their recording to be shared. This was a challenge, because the purpose of the oral history interview lies not in the transcript, but rather in the orality of the interview and the heard exchange between the interviewee and the interviewer. Ultimately, my goal was to preserve the stories being told to me in a way that was comfortable for the tellers, so the librarian and I agreed to exclude the audio recording of the interview.

I provided release forms to the interviewees, which you can find at the end of this chapter, to memorialize what the interviews will be used for and how. I amended the release form with the librarian whose interview recording is excluded to include that detail. We signed the release forms together at the libraries, where the interviews took place. The interviews were recorded with a Zoom H1n Audio Recorder. The interviews were then transcribed through Otter.ai and were manually edited. The transcripts and recordings were sent to the interviewees.

I’m grateful to both of the interviewees for taking the time to speak with me and for allowing me to preserve their words in this chapter. I hope you will find their insights and enthusiasm helpful on your journey to becoming a GLAM professional.

Interview Recordings

https://soundcloud.com/alyssab7/interview-with-esther-yi-childrens-librarian/s-vrNTUbKK6A4?si=8497f62f10a3499b836082005bda4247&utm_source=clipboard&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=social_sharing

Interview Transcripts

Interview at the Champaign Public Library

November 9, 2023

Hi! This is Alyssa Brown. I am a first-year student in the University of Illinois’ Master of Library and Information Science program. I’m here at the Champaign Public Library.

AB: My first question is can you just tell me a little bit about yourself?

Librarian: Yeah! So I have been here at the Champaign Library for about ten years now. Before that, I was at a library in Iowa. And before that I got my degree in Library Science at IU in Bloomington. So I joke with everyone that I’ve lived in three “I” states, the ones that all connect to each other and share borders, and I’m sure Idaho is lovely, but I have yet to get to be there, so.

AB: Nice. Um, so, if you’re comfortable sharing this, what is your role at the library?

Librarian: Yeah, so I primarily am – well, my official job title is Technology Librarian.

Um, what that means, essentially, is that I help coordinate and run our technology programs for the public, including things like getting started with your iPhone, and also coordinate the specialty technology programs that we offer, like Adobe Illustrator, and Photoshop, and I source outside presenters to come in and teach the more complicated stuff. And then I also currently am helping with our new studio space downstairs with helping train staff.

AB: Nice. I’ve heard a lot about the studio space. Yeah, yeah, super exciting.

Librarian: It’s very cool.

AB: Um, how did you get into technology services?

Librarian: Yeah, well, actually, I started out in my undergrad, um, are in the humanities, so English and art history, which wouldn’t really necessarily lend itself to technology, per se. But during my graduate program, I did take a lot of website development workshops, and found that I really enjoyed website design. So when I graduated, I gravitated toward that side of things, and also the instructor side of things of teaching people how to use technology. And I was lucky enough to get a job at the library in Iowa, as their web assistant, where I was updating all the programs and things like that there. It kind of moved me in that direction, as far as the library side of things go. Before that, though, I’ve always been a techy person. My dad is a – someone who – he was a software engineer.

And any new devices, we were pretty much always getting them first or right when they came out. And then whenever something got upgraded, he would give me – hand off the the older version. So you know, one of the first families on our block to get dial up internet. Back when AOL was the big deal, and the CDs. Yeah, pretty much from a very young age. I’ve always been into devices and gadgets. So it’s a very nice, a nice melding of my two, my two passions.

AB: So what’s your other passion then?

Librarian: So, technology and libraries.

AB: Oh, okay, got it. Perfect. What, I guess I will ask, what drew you to librarianship specifically?

Librarian: Mhm. I got a job at our university library, actually, in the health sciences, far away from public libraries, when I was an undergrad, and I just loved – I loved that environment so much. And in that job, I wasn’t actually working with the public. I was helping with like, journal statistics and things like that. But when I graduated, I realized close to graduation, I realized that was like my happy place. I just really enjoyed the people I worked with, and the environment. And so I was like, I’m gonna go to library school. But since I also had the art history background, I was actually looking at art librarianship. So when I actually got my degree in Indiana, it was actually for a specialization in art librarianship. And I did an internship at the art library, at my undergrad University. And just – in that I actually got to work with the public and I really, really enjoyed working with the public too, and getting to answer questions. I love the puzzle aspect of it all, and helping people connect to resources.

AB: Cool, nice! And you’ve already touched on this a bit, but what did your career path look like? I know you went to IU for library school.

Librarian: Mhm. Yes. Yeah. So it was – yeah, um, IU in Bloomington for grad school for the two years, then back to my hometown in Iowa. And I got a job at that at the public library in my hometown while I was considering getting a master’s in art history there. And then I decided that wasn’t really the way I wanted to go. So I didn’t really want to do a dual masters. It was too – too strenuous at that time for me to do that. So I started working at that public library, and then kind of went from there. And I- what brought me to Champaign was my spouse, who actually got a job here in town.

AB: Nice. Yeah, that, I think, leads well into my next question, which is, how does your work fit into your lifestyle? And your life in general?

Librarian: Yeah, I mean, you know, I actually, I guess a lot of folks would say, you know, having a nine to five – they love having a nine to five, set straight hours or whatever. But for me, working in a library that allows me to work nights and weekends is also kind of fun. Because I certainly don’t mind, you know, one weekend out of the month, or whatever to come and work, and having mornings off for things like doctor’s appointments or – or taking my dog to the vet or whatever. So that part of even just the basic scheduling works really well for me. And lifestyle wise, I just, I can’t imagine myself really doing anything else now. Now that I’ve been doing it for a while. And yeah, I mean, it’s great. I love it.

AB: That’s sweet. I love that, too. Um, can you tell me about some of the challenges of your work or librarianship in general?

Librarian: Yeah. So I think it depends on which kind of library you go into, because I’m sure they’re very particular challenges, having come from the academic side early on, to moving into the public public side of things, there are some of the same challenges, and then some different challenges depending on what facet you’re in. But I would say, working with the public is also a challenge just as much as it is amazing. Because, you know, you have to get it have a good sense of, at least if you’re going to be into the public librarianship and with a public facing role, you know, knowing how to how to help people get what they need, how to find out what they really want, even if they haven’t quite figured it out for themselves yet, which sometimes happens. And then just, you know, it’s a anybody, you know, what I love about the library is that anyone can come in and get resources, especially here, we don’t require you to have a library card from this library to get to, you know, online information or come to programs or things like that, which I love. But at the same time, it does mean that any, you know, there’s anyone comes in whatever challenges they have in their daily life, too, sometimes it – it, you know, can bleed over into your day to day working with the public, but – but in general, I really love it. (Laughter).

AB: Nice! Yeah, and I know you mentioned working with the public as being good, too.

I guess, what are some of your favorite things about working here?

Librarian: Yeah, uh… favorite things. My coworkers are awesome. We have a really good work environment. Um, a really good – within my department, and also, I think, in general at the library. We have a large staff here, but I think, you know, anyone, I could ask almost anyone on the staff for help. Well, I could ask anyone. Not almost anyone. (Laughter). I could ask anyone for help on the staff and they would readily try to pitch in and do what they could for me for anything, which makes it a really nice work environment. We’ve – I think we’re very well supported. Not just by administration, but also by the city. And in the community for that, too. I think – If I can throw in a joke from like Park – did you ever see Parks and Recreation?

AB: No, but I know it’s really popular! (Laughter).

Librarian: Yeah. So there’s a there’s a line in Parks and Rec where they’re trying to get funding. And they’re like, oh, we can’t ever get funding because everybody wants to fund the library. (Laughter). And it’s like – it’s like, yeah, well, that’s because, you know, they’re both very, very important. But I understand the like, the joke that comes from that too, because a lot of times people are very willing to help support, you know, lifelong learning efforts and early literacy and things like that, that come from the library.

AB: Nice! Yeah. Um, hmm.. I guess I’m actually interested in the studio. If you could just tell me a little bit about that? And maybe it could also be like a little plug.

Librarian: Yeah, absolutely. So the studio is – it’s an 8000 square foot space in our lower level. It just opened at the – like the second week of October. So it’s been open now for about four weeks, five weeks – four or five weeks now. And we have a whole bunch of really awesome equipment, and I get to say that as the Technology Librarian, I think.

But we have recording studios down there. We have a Cricut machine, we have a Glowforge, which is a laser cutting machine. We have a gaming area, we have sewing machines, we have a large format printer, so people can come print posters! We have 3D printers, so they can submit files for us to print. You know, little pieces that they need for something if they’ve lost a piece for like a remote control or something, they can come and print it and have us print it for them. And it’s a really amazing space for the teens after school. So we – you probably noticed, we’re across the street from Edison Middle School, so a lot of teens come over in the after school time, and we get to host them. And it’s amazing, because we have this new space, and they were all – on the first day when they came in, and they were like, “this is for us?!” And we’re like, “yeah, it’s for you, you get to hang out down here!” And so I think they get to take a nice – nice ownership of the space too, and – and know that it was created with them in mind, which is really cool. And we have an amazing teen team that – that works with them after school too, so.

AB: Yeah, that’s great. And yes, I – I always walk past after work to – just to get home, and there are always kids outside, and when I came in today, there were so many and I was like, “wow, it’s really nice to see them using the library.”

Librarian: Absolutely. Because those – you know, they are the folks that will support the library in the future, too. And if they have good memories of their time here, they’re more likely to come in and bring – you know, once they have families, if they decide to, bring their families in or come back as adults and – and come see us, which is super fun.

AB: Yeah, totally. Um, and with the studio, I know you mentioned, you know, you were involved in that. What – what exactly were you doing?

Librarian: So, a lot of what I was doing was helping train our staff on how to use the equipment before we had our grand opening for the public. So most of my department, and then the children’s/teen department, we are all in there. So the adult services, which is my department, we’re in there on the weekends. And then the team and CS department is in there during the week. And then we also have adult programs down in there in the evening. And we do what we call Book-a-Librarian appointments in the morning. And the Book-a-Librarian is something we’ve done for a very long time, it could be someone coming up asking for a resume help, or, um, how to use their phone, things like that, but it’s one-on-one with a staff member. So now we’ve also transitioned that down to helping people learn how to use the machines down there, too. So my role has mostly been helping staff learn how to use the different machines there so that we can best show the public how to use them.

AB: Got it. Nice! Very cool.

Librarian: Means I’ve been through a lot of YouTube videos! (Laughter). Of different people, designers, and so forth and so on, using the machines.

AB: Yeah, I mean, me today, looking up a YouTube video on, you know, all the settings of this recorder. Um, and my last question is, I want to help people who are interested in librarianship, figure out how their skills would fit in with librarianship. And I’m interested in what some of your, like, favorite skills about yourself are and how they relate to librarianship and your position.

Librarian: Yeah, I would say, depending on what kind of librarianship you’re going into, too, because there’s lots of – like I said earlier, there’s lots of different facets and different types of positions. And, you know, of course, not everyone in a library is – is a quote unquote, “Librarian with a master’s in library science,” either. Some of the things that – that do come into play for working our desk for like, in depth reference questions and things like that, I think it is, it is good to have that – that in your in your toolbox, shall we say.  I think for me, one of my favorite things – I’m trying to think, my skill set in general, has been kind of interesting to come from, like, the humanities side and then come into the tech side and then I love when anybody asks an art question out at the desk because I’m like, “oh, I get to use my – my undergrad degree. Okay, this is fun!” But I think being – being person– if you’re going to be public facing, especially being someone who likes people, personable, likes doing customer service, likes providing good customer service or even excellent customer service. Really caring about helping people, being passionate about your – your career in a way that kind of projects out from you, wherever you are, too is kind of – and I don’t – that’s not necessarily like a tangible skill, per se, but just like knowing it’s the right fit for you certainly helps. And then I think, I’m trying to think what else, um, from the technology side of things, patience. Patience and confidence that you can encourage others is also very important. But again, it just really depends on what kind of librarianship you want to go into. You know, folks that like, for example, if you want to be a cataloger, you’re going to need a lot of attention to detail to be a cataloger. If you want to be in administration, there’s a whole other level of (laughter) of stuff that you need in your toolbox. So but for me, I would say my, my favorite skill that I have, I think, is probably how much I’ve learned about instruction, and teaching others and the different kind of learning styles that people have and how to best cater to that in a workshop, and being able to reach people who, you know, maybe definitely need the hands on experience of, you know, me – watching me do it, then doing it themselves with me looking over their shoulder, and then practicing on their own. Or the people who prefer to read it, and read the description of how to do something, and then go and do it. Or the people who need to hear it, and then do it. Because everybody’s got kind of a different learning style, and learning how to kind of cater to everybody at the same time has – has been a very interesting – interesting ride, I should say. (Laughter). From the instruction side of things.

AB: Super important. I know I said that was the last question, but actually, I’m wondering if you have any advice for anyone who might be interested in either specifically technology librarianship or librarianship in general?

Librarian: Yes. First thing is go to the library, ask if you can volunteer, get in the door, start doing things that you can do. If you’ve already started your library science program, see if you can get in with some local, if it’s like a special library that you want to go into, starting to try to find that special library. If it’s a public library, start volunteering or seeing if you can do your practicum there. Because the biggest thing is, you know, shadowing someone is a great place to start to see if it’s something that you want to do. And it’s also a great way to start to know if you don’t want to do something. Because yeah, I did – when I was in undergrad and kind of exploring things, I wanted to be a professional photographer, I went and shadowed a professional photographer, got a part time job with that photographer, realized I didn’t want to own my own photography business, that I much preferred photography as my creative hobby than my career. And that really helped me, and I think that can really help everyone else, too. Before you, you know, necessarily commit to spending a lot of money perhaps, or, you know, even if you do and you go into the – go into the field, and you’re in the academic side of it, and then you decide that you start working in the field and you’re like, “okay, I don’t really like this, this isn’t really the best fit for me.” It’s always okay to change your mind. It’s always okay to pick something else and explore that. But if you can do it early on, you’re more likely to find something that you’re passionate about, that maybe will transition into that career.

AB: Yeah, that’s great advice.

Librarian: Coming from my own experience of (laughter) my roundabout way to get to public libraries.

AB: Yeah, that’s great. Thank you so much.

Librarian: Yeah, absolutely!

AB: And yeah, thank you for your time. I’m gonna end the recording.

Interview with Esther Yi at the Urbana Free Library

November 11, 2023

Hi, this is Alyssa Brown. I’m a first-year student at the University of Illinois in the Master of Library and Information Science Program. I’m here at the Urbana Free Library with Esther Yi. Can you introduce yourself?

EY: Yes, my name is Esther Yi. I’m one of the Children’s Librarians here at the Urbana Free Library.

AB: Great, thank you. And can you tell me a little bit about yourself, Esther?

EY: Yes. So I also went to the Library of Information Science at the U of I. And I actually also worked at Champaign Public Library for about eight years as a Library Associate. And then I came over here to the Urbana Free Library as a full time Children’s Librarian about four years ago. And one of- so I can also talk about about (laughter) uh, how I ended up becoming a librarian is – I used to sub for the Champaign schools for a few years. And one of the school librarians actually let me do her job, and not just have me show videos to the kids. And she left me lesson plans, and once I actually helped kids research books, how to find books, you know, teach them the Dewey Decimal, read aloud to like the kindergarteners, I was like, “okay, this is the job I want to do.” So after I got into the library science, which at the time at U of I was called GSLIS, I also started volunteering at the – actually at the Champaign Public Library. And once I saw what that was, like, I changed my mind and went, “okay, no school librarianship, I want to do this, I want to work in a public library.” And then the rest is history.

AB: Nice. Thank you for that. Can you tell me about, you know, what your role is here, and what exactly it is that you do?

EY: Yes. So my primary role – I have two big things I do – is programming and manning the front desk for reference at the children’s area. For the referencing, basically, I am at what we call the question desk. And that’s where I help any patrons who come in who need anything in that area, whether it’s finding a book, finding – giving them, you know, readers advisories, you know, things like that, whether it’s assisting them finding programs in the different rooms, opening the rooms up, answering phones, and other things of that nature, helping kids onto onto the computer, helping them with computer things, helping adults who come down here who want to do the computer, so they need help with like, printing, even like, you know, like if they’re doing a job application down here while their child is playing, even things like that, like just tech skills. Yes. Oh, and then for programming, sorry, for programming, I basically plan and do programs for the library. For instance, today, I actually have a Jump Into Science program happening at noon. And then we also have a Latin American storytime happening at two. And these are programs where I brought outside people to present. Other times, I do stuff that I do things myself. For example, this past summer, I had a dragon egg program where kids got to make their own dragon eggs with clay and little jewel things that you can decorate the egg with. So things like that. I also do outreach. So recently did school visits to promote the library so I went to the school and visited all the different classrooms, like pretty much all day, to show them what we have and encourage them to get a library card, you know, things like that.

AB: Nice! Would you mind telling me a little bit about the programs that are happening today?

EY: Yes. So the Jump Into Science program that’s happening today, we have U of I students from – sorry, let me say that again. We have graduate students from the U of I coming. They’re – they’re called GradSWE, so they’re – they’re graduate… I can never remember the acronym well, but they’re basically graduate students, I believe of Women Engineers, I think that’s who they are, they’re coming in, and they come and do science experiments with the kids. So today, it’s going to be weather experiments, so it’ll be kinda kind of fun. At two we have the Latin American storytime where we have the – I believe it’s called the Latin American and Caribbean Studies – Center of Caribbean Studies or something like that. They’re coming and they do basically a Latin American storytime where they read stories in English and Latin American language, whether it’s Spanish, Quechua, you know, things like that. And afterwards, we do a Latin American craft. So yeah, the kids have fun. They love it.

AB: Yeah, those sound like a lot of fun. Um, I know you mentioned you know, how you were introduced to librarianship. Can you tell me a little bit more about what it was that drew you to librarianship?

EY: Yes, it was the children. Being able to help them find books, teaching them about, you know, the Dewey Decimal, reading to kids. I think it was three – three elements. One, it was a mix of kids, books, and helping. With, like, whether it was helping the kids or helping someone. And it was that combination that made me go, “ooh, I love this. This is wonderful.” And it was different from teaching because I’ve, I’ve done the substitute teaching, so I knew what it was like to teach kids and kind of try to get them to learn stuff. But this was a little more, it wasn’t just – it had a teaching element. But it was more a servicing thing, where I was helping kids find stuff. I was helping them learn, too, but you know, it wasn’t as in depth as what a teacher does. And I think that’s what I like, those – those, those elements kind of mixed together, which is why I loved it when I volunteered at the public library, because school libraries was still more oriented towards the teaching aspect, whereas the public library it was, oh, I’m not only doing – it’s not only just books service, and then the kids and later also adults, too, the programming aspect that brought a different form of service is not just helping someone find something. It’s actually providing a need for people in the form of like an activity or a program. It just that was that was it. I’m like, “this is what I want to do. This is the career. Yes.”

AB: I love that you had that moment. You know, excitement and real realization of what you wanted to do.

EY: Oh, the moment when a kid’s face lights up, ’cause you get them the book they’ve been looking for is priceless.

AB: Yeah, I believe it. Yeah, I was that kid for sure. (Laughter).

EY: Yay! That’s wonderful.

AB: And you mentioned that you went to the University of Illinois. Could you just tell me a little bit more about what your career path looked like, maybe even starting with undergrad?

EY: Yes. So I actually went to the U of I as an undergrad as well, both. So undergrad and Master’s, my undergrad I was a (laughter) I was an English and French major. Because I didn’t know what I wanted to do with my life. And so that’s why when I subbed and that teacher gave me her lessons plan- lesson plans – why it was such, I guess a eureka moment, is I really didn’t know what I wanted to do. And so my undergrad years was simply get a degree, finish well, finish, you know, well enough, and then maybe figure out what you want to do afterwards. Um, but then the moment that substitute teacher gave me her plans, and then during that month when I was reflecting on what it was actually like, and I had decided, “okay, I want to be a librarian.” It turned into, “I want to be a librarian, how do I get there?” And it included research on “what do I need to do.” And I, that’s when I discovered, “oh, you need a master’s degree.” And then so I looked up schools and realized, “oh, the U of I has a Library Information Program!” And I happened to be living here at this time. So I thought, oh, I’ll just apply there. It wasn’t until after I – I did everything, applied, and sent it in, that I realized (laughter) U of I’s number one for library information science, then I started to – I proceeded to freak out. (Laughter). But that’s okay! I fortunately got in and did a few very happy, private rounds around my house screaming in excitement, fortunately I was alone, nobody heard me. When I got the – when I got the email, I was very, very excited as you can – as you can see from my description, and then – and then I went to library school for two years. And during those two years, it was – it was interesting, because I actually didn’t want to be a children’s librarian. I just knew I wanted to be a librarian. So my time at the I school was about figuring out what kinds of jobs are there that are now related to this field. I had no idea you could be an archivist, a digital, you know, information file preserver a – a museum curator, all these things. But as I kept learning about librarianship through the classes, and what courses were available, I was pretty sure I wanted to be a public librarian. Now the question was what kind. There’s adult librarian, teen, you know, children’s. And so I kind of – I took different courses that I was just interested in, such as youth literature, you know, and… what else? I took – a took a technology course, like web design. I also took courses on how to use social media and digital resources of information, things like that. And after taking all this, my idea will kind of librarian I wanted to be started to form and it basically was literally just public librarian. That didn’t actually become focused until I did practical things such as my practicum. I started working at the public library. At first I volunteered while I was going to I school, and then I got hired as a what they called at the time a page, which is pretty much a shelver. And then as I kept doing that job, as I kept going to the I school, and even after I graduated, I just kept working at library as a part timer. And then I slowly moved up. So I went from shelver, positions opened, I applied to them, and I became a Library Assistant. And then from a Library Assistant, I became a Library Associate. And then as I kept going up these ranks, I was able to do more. So before all I did was shelving, then I did like little tasks, like helping with shifting and helping with projects, volunteering to help a librarian with a program to later becoming the librarian who plans the program, even though I was still a part timer. And it was during that time that I thought I wanted to be a adult librarian, I did my practicum as an adult librarian, but during my practical time of being a Library Assistant and Associate, I started doing children’s things. And then I was like, “ah, this is what I want to do,” which is – I should have known that from the beginning. It was children who inspired me to be this to begin with. But I didn’t know what I was doing. (Laughter). So, and so that was my career path. It was kind of this thing of, oh, I want to be this, learning more about it, researching how to get there, learning more about it, and then through practical experience, knowing what it’s actually like in the field and then deciding, “ah, more specifically, I want to be this.” And then so as I was a library associate, I tried – I tried everything, I wanted to do everything. Fortunately, I was able to get hired and worked at Champaign Library’s Douglass Branch, so they’re smaller. So I got to do everything. I was a cert clerk, I was a children’s librarian, I was an adult librarian, I was a teen librarian, like I did everything. And as I was doing all those things, I was gaining experience in all the different fields. And then once I realized I wanted to be a children’s librarian, I purposely pushed to be able to do more things in that field such as storytimes, crafts, um, just helping the kids constantly who came in with their computer helps, things like that. And then so when I – when a position finally opened up here at the Urbana Free Library for a full time children’s position. I was – I was ready. I’m like, “okay, interview. Let’s let’s try this, let’s do this!” And by some miracle, I got it. I got the position. Oh, it was very exciting. Yeah.

AB: Yeah. Well, it seems like you really enjoy your job here.

EY: Oh, I love it. Yes.

AB: Can you tell me about some of the things you like most about your work?

EY: Oh, I love readers’ advisory and helping people find what they’re looking for. Something about – because they’ll – a patron or like a parent or a child will come up and say, “hey, I need the next book I want to read.” I especially love that like – the specific ones of “hey, do you have Diary of a Wimpy Kid?” It’s like, “oh, yeah, it’s over there.” When it’s more like, “hey, I need the next book, you know, book I want to read but I don’t know what that is.” Then I go, “okay, let’s do this.” I’m on a mission, right? And so I’ll ask things like, “what what is a book that you liked? What’s the last book you read that you liked? What did you like about it?” And to me, it’s like this fun little adventure of figuring out what what kind of reader this child or even an adult is, and then being able to then pull from my list of books that I kind of have – I now, because I’ve been here for long enough, and working in libraries and helping people with books enough, I have this little mental repertoire of, “oh, they’d like fantasy. It’s these type of books. Oh, this was a good one. That was a good one.” If they like mysteries, it’s this type, that type. If there are certain age level, “oh, this will be a good one for you.” And I just – I get excited. And then because I get excited, they – their eyes kind of light up. And I think that’s what I’m trying to go for, that little eye lighting up is an experience that really stuck with me when it first happened with this one child. I don’t even remember the child’s name, but I remember going “oh yeah, I remember reading this book and it was really good.” And I gave it to them. They saw the cover and their eyes just lit up. And I was like, (gasp) “oh, what is this feeling?” You know? And so I love readers’ advisory, helping people, that. In general, I also get quite a fulfillment, helping them find other things even if it’s not books. One time I helped – I helped this one patron with her job application and she was having a really tough time. There all these digital things, and she had to save it as a file, she had to learn how to fax it. This particular experience wasn’t at the Urbana Free Library. It was at the Champaign, but after it was all over and, you know, she – she was having difficulty with technology on top of that. So, as I was helping her, we got everything in. At the very end, she was just so grateful. And I could tell I had performed a service she desperately needed, and probably couldn’t have found anywhere else easily outside the library with her resources and her knowledge. And so, that was just – there’s a fulfillment when you know you’re helping someone, and it would have been very difficult for them otherwise, if you hadn’t been there. Yeah, those those are probably some of my faves. Programs are lots of fun. I like coming up with different crafts and ideas and things that I can do. Like (grabs and shows craft) I have different crafts I make for storytimes. And my, my criteria is, is it doable as the first thing for, you know, whatever age group I’m doing, and is it cute? It must be cute.

AB: It’s cute. That one is really cute. Nice! On that note, could you tell me about some of the challenges of working here?

EY: Yes, there are times when I get so busy. And so you really have to learn to jump from task to task to task while still keeping in mind all the other things you have to do. So this is what I mean, when – when I’m at the desk, and I’m helping patrons, I’m also, when it’s quiet, trying to get other work done that is just as important, such as programming – program planning. I’m trying to put together projects, whether it’s for readers advisories, or I’m prepping for an outreach that’s going to be happening soon. Those are important, and those also have deadlines. But then when a patron comes up and asks for help, they come first. And when that kind of situation happens every five minutes for the next four hours, and you have no time to think beyond “oh, what what do they need to do, what do they need,” when the phone rings at the same time that a patron comes up and then the child needs something else, and you’re the only one on the desk, it just it can get – it’s quite a challenge. It took me, I want to say, a couple years at least, to really become comfortable enough to be able to move from “I’m going to help you I’m gonna help you okay, I’ll be right with you one second,” how to do in such a way that still make patients feel like they weren’t being forgotten. And still make them feel welcome. It was definitely a challenge learning that. So that’s definitely one of the challenges. The other challenge is when I can’t help them. You know. There are times when I wish I could help every single patron who asks me a question, who needs something, but there are times when I just don’t know the answer. Or it’s one of those tough situations where they want something, they need something, but I literally don’t have it. I know you want that book desperately right now. But they’re all checked out. There’s nothing I can do. And so learning how to redirect them so that we can at least get them on their way to that or maybe find a substitute or something has – was definitely a learning experience. And that’s always kind of tough. The other – the other thing is when we have to deal with behavior and you know, volume type issues, especially in a children’s – or like accidents that happen, those kinds of situations, especially in a children’s area, can be quite challenging. The biggest challenge, I would be saying when it’s intentional misbehavior, where you want to help the children, you want to help the adults, but they are being so disruptive or not being cooperative, and when you have to ask them to leave. And learning how to set that boundary has been definitely a challenge. But one thing I learned is you want to be the best service person you can to patrons. But there are other things that take precedence over that such as safety. And also not just the safety of other patrons and even those the patrons themselves who are causing disruptions, but your own safety and the safety of your coworkers. And that was something I really had to practically learn through my time at the library that I think could be talked about and was talked about and discussed in the school academically, but it’s something you don’t really learn until you actually practically get in the field. And so that was one of the biggest challenges for sure.

AB: That sounds really tough.

EY: Yes, the things they don’t teach you at library school, I could make a list

AB: Yeah?

EY: Yeah. Things they don’t teach you a library school: that you may have to get on your stomach, crawl under a toilet door because a child locked it from the inside and there’s no maintenance people to help you and you need to get that unlocked because other patrons need to use the restroom. Things like that. Yes, the things – the other things they don’t teach you is that you may have to be not just a librarian, but a tech person, maintenance person and maybe even a temporary guardian for a child. One time we – I found a young child wandering around and we had to search the library for mom, who didn’t realize she couldn’t just leave her child in the children’s area, and went off to find books. And I was like, “um… you need to keep your child.” Especially since this child was young enough that she couldn’t talk. Yes, so I was holding, holding the child. And normally I do not pick up children or touch them. But this one was six months old, with a three year old on the side, they had been just left down. So I was like, okay, safety. So again, there are some things that I’m like, oh, I’m not allowed to do, but until safety takes precedence. And so I, you know, held the child, had the little toddler come with me, and it’s like, “we’re gonna find mom!” And of course, I called my coworkers to help and say, “hey, did you find – see a woman,” and I vaguely remembered what she looked like, was like, “like this. We’re trying to find mom, because I have her children.” Didn’t want to just leave them randomly in play area by themselves. So yeah, things like that.

AB: That sounds very stressful. Um, I guess my – I have just a couple of more questions. One of them being, how – how does your work fit into your life? Or your lifestyle? Meaning, I guess – does that make sense, actually?

EY: Could you elaborate?

AB: Yeah. Um, I guess I’m wondering, you know, either practically, like logistically with like, your hours or things like that, or just… more like, theoretically, I guess emotionally? Like, how does it fit into your – are you able to take care of yourself, um, in the ways that you need to, having a job that can sometimes be stressful? More like that. Both of those things are what I’m looking for.

EY: Yeah. No, that makes perfect sense. So yes, so one thing about a library that is very different, I feel like from other typical jobs, and I mean, literally, typical, typical jobs, is the hours. And so I don’t mean, like random graveyard shifts that you hear about other people. I mean, just a typical job has like what nine to five teachers are like seven something to like three something, you know, but it’s consistent. Generally you can say every week is like this. Libraries, we’re open Monday through Sunday. And so all the staff, I don’t know about other libraries, but definitely this library and the previous library I worked with, we had rotating shifts, so that – not, mm, how do I say this? So we had rotating shifts so that we rotated out the weekends. And so every week looks different. In my other library job, it was every two weeks, like kind of flipped. And then for this job, actually, every four weeks flips, so every week is different for four weeks for me, and then it does a cycle again. So if you ask me, “oh, do you work this weekend?” I’m like, “I don’t know.” I have digital my digital calendar, because I can’t keep track of which week it is. So that’s the thing that’s different. Everybody’s like, “oh, you’re free this weekend, right?” I’m like, “no, it depends on which weekend,” you know. Whereas for other people, the weekends are their rest day and no, no, no, no, no, for me, it depends. My Friday can be my weekend. And then my Monday, and then I work like today. I work today, Saturday, and I work tomorrow, Sunday, actually. And instead, Friday and Monday are my Saturday and my Sunday. So things like that I have to – it definitely affects my personal life. Because I have to schedule things I have to keep an eye on if I have something weekly that I want to go to, let’s say like, like a smart group meeting, a friend hanging out, you know, meals with my family, I have to schedule accordingly. Like for instance, for example, I can never eat dinner with my family or friends on a Thursday night because I work till nine. I have the night shift – the evening shift, not night shift. That’s weird. Yes, the evening shift. So I have time in the day, because I start later, let’s say at noon, but I don’t end till nine, you know, so that kind of thing. So in that sense, yes. Schedule definitely affects my personal life. What I’ve had to do is – I… So one thing I’ve learned to make very important is making sure my sleeping schedule is right. Otherwise, that evening after I work on a Thursday, I – It’s pretty much almost bedtime and I have to go to work right away the next morning on a Friday. And so it’s very important to have a good sleeping schedule. Because otherwise there are certain days when it’s just so much tougher because of this weird schedule where it’s not consistent every week. So that – in that way, it definitely affects me. Um, in other ways, when I’m on my shifts, it’s a long day. With – even though I get a one hour lunch period, so so it’s an eight hour day, but I have an in between lunch – one hour lunch period, if I eat here at the library, I’m in this building for nine hours. Nine. That’s a long time. And so we get breaks in between, like we – if you have a four hour shift, or a five hour shift, or like a three hour shift, you get certain amount of breaks. So I tried to take advantage of those breaks to take a mental break to make sure that you know, I had, like you said, taking care of myself. Because if not, it’s so easy to burn out. Even in a job you love. It’s very easy to burn out if you don’t watch yourself. One thing I do love about the library is that, unlike teachers, I generally don’t take work home. If I have an option to take it home, I don’t. I do not work outside of my work hours, at least in this library. Our admin is very adamant about that. They’re very good about being like, “no, you work while you’re here, go home when you’re at home.” Unless of course, it’s remote work. I do do remote work once in a while. And then of course, then I’ll take work home and work during those hours. So I – it’s one of those things where you just have to get used to an odd schedule. But then I’ve incorporated it enough that now it’s like oh, yeah, Thursday’s that’s just my late day. Oh, I have this on this on – this weekend is my working weekend, you know, and so like, I have it in a calendar so I can keep track of it. So that’s kind of how I mix and merge my personal and my work life is to keep it organized. And to try to keep good schedules, like personal habits that I know will affect my work life. And vice versa. Like I tried to take breaks during the work day, so that it doesn’t make me go “ahh” and crazy in my personal life because I’m so tired from work that I can’t do anything else. Mhm. The other thing I tried to do is definitely in my work environment, I do my best to keep good relationships with patrons and with my co workers. One of the reasons I love my job is not just because of what I do. This particular library, my coworkers are awesome. We have such a good work environment. If I did not have a good work environment, I don’t think I would love my job as much. It’s because I have such good coworkers, we get along well, we’re friends, we will sometimes meet outside of work like hey, let’s get together for a meal. And that makes a big difference. So it’s kind of like, yes, this is my work life, but I – we get along well enough to be friends, too, so it kind of bleeds into my personal life and as a positive – in a positive, healthy way. And that’s another way I kind of blend my work and personal to keep a healthy lifestyle. Because otherwise, it’s just – it’s too much. And I don’t want my work to be something I always have to take a break from. I want my work to be healthy in such a way where, yes, I need a break because I need physical rest, and sometimes mental rest. But it’s also a place where I can get energized, too. And so that’s why I try to have a good relationship with with the people I work with as well. And also be responsible for creating a positive atmosphere for my coworkers. So.

AB: That makes sense.

EY: Mhm. Did that answer your question?

AB: Yes, absolutely.

EY: Okay, okay, good.

AB: Yeah, I’m sorry if it was a little unclear at first.

EY: No, no, not at all.

AB: And I think I just have one more question, which is, what advice would you give to someone, an undergraduate student, who is interested in pursuing librarianship?

EY: So undergrad, not grad, correct?

AB: Not grad. Because, we already know that we want to be…

EY: Right. Right, right. First thing is, as an undergrad, I would say don’t do a library information science degree as an undergrad. Do something else, something you’re interested in, and then get the graduate degree. That’s – that’s the first just practical little advice I would give because I had classmates who did undergrad library science, and they were bored by some of the classes because they were literally just doing it all over again, just to get the master’s. Whereas, if they, for me, the fact that I did English and French in undergrad actually kind of helped with my experiences and things I came up against in the library like, I – the fact that I could speak some French I was able to help French speaking patrons who had nobody else to help them because their English was truly so limited. My limited French was the best help they could have gotten and it worked out and I was able to help them fill out this crazy like court form or something that they had to fill out in order to help with their visa and job application. It was, it was very very detailed and yet I was able to help her because of that. So I would say, if you as an undergrad, you know, you want to be a librarian kind of, and you’re thinking about it, first research it to make sure you do want to do it. And second, do something you want to learn, that’s not librarianship in your undergrad, and then go to library school for your master’s. The other thing I would say is, if you’re interested in becoming a librarian, my advice is… just read a lot of books, interact with a lot of people and try to do jobs or volunteering things that have you interacting with the public, because librarianship is – people think it’s, oh, you shelve books, and you put books away, you help people find books. No, we are an information service center. And I emphasize both information and service. You are serving people, it’s a service job. And so you need social skills, you need people skills, you need to have service skills. And also you need to be able to learn how to find information. And obviously going to library schools can help you a little bit with that. But also as an undergrad, I would say if you try to be curious, learn things, find things out that will help you and go a long way in your career and future for librarianship.

AB: Great, thank you. Those are all my questions. If there’s anything else that you’d like to add, now would be the time. But you can also say, “that’s it!”

EY: I mean, I don’t – I don’t know, I have lots to say, I have so many things we could talk about so, I’m not going to because there’s a whole slew, but if you had any other random questions you wanted to ask, I could do it. Like for instance, you know, like collections, um, other service points, you know, things like that.

AB: I think I – I think I’ll stop it there. Just because, I don’t want to dig in too deep and make it irrelevant for what we’re trying to go for with this book.

EY: That’s why I’m saying, I don’t know what your purpose for this stuff is, so I’ll let you ask the questions for any other relevant information. Rather than other things that you’re like, “oh that’s nice to know!” But you don’t need. (Laughter).

AB: Sure. Okay, I’m going to stop the recording now, then.

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