A Day in the Life of Five Librarians, Part 12

Justin Hoenke, who has worked in public libraries in the U.S. and New Zealand, has been talking to all types of library staffers for A Day in the Life, his column in Information Today. Among other things, he asks them about their typical days, moments that made them proud, their current projects, and how they see the library field evolving. Here’s a look at his columns from October 2023 to April 2024, which have been lightly edited and excerpted for the web.

You can read the full interviews in Information Today, starting with the September 2017 issue. If you’re doing something exciting at your library that you’d like to share, email itletters@infotoday.com.

Respect

I keep coming back to one specific thing that Sherlonya Zobel said: “If respect isn’t the baseline of library service, I don’t know what is.” When we lead with our hearts, when we show kindness to each other, and when we have respect at the core of what we do, only then can our public libraries be truly there for our communities.

YOU’VE BEEN THE ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR AT THE ANN ARBOR DISTRICT LIBRARY FOR ALMOST 3 YEARS. WHAT DID YOU LEARN WHEN MOVING FROM YOUTH SERVICES INTO LIBRARY ADMINISTRATION?

Moving into the associate director role during the disruption that COVID caused has been an interesting change. One of the questions that I’m often asked when I’m interviewing prospective staff is about why I do what I do. One of the answers I give to that question is that library work is a place where I feel strongly that my values align with my aptitudes. Also, this role feels like a natural extension of roles that I’ve worked in before.

Working in youth services really framed the way I think about library service. For example, youth services are a good place to think about how different aspects of library service are interconnected. You can only serve young people you gain access to, and, mostly, that access is going to come through a parent, a teacher, or some other person who has decided how the young person is going to spend their time. So, in some ways, service that is intended for children has to resonate with the adult who is mediating their experience.

One of my favorite things about serving children is the way they express their opinions and desires. Some of them really just let you know exactly what’s on their mind. While this is often fun (or funny), it can be a reminder that library users of all ages have strong opinions but they’re just not always as likely to express them clearly. With that, one of my core beliefs is that the question one must keep in mind in youth services is, how do you show respect to these young library users? If we can take that question/idea and apply it to the rest of library service, I think that it takes us a long way. If respect isn’t the baseline of library service, I don’t know what is.

YOUR LIBRARY IS KNOWN FOR HAVING AN AMAZING COLLECTION OF “TOOLS,” AS THEY ARE CALLED IN YOUR CATALOG. WHAT ARE SOME OF YOUR FAVORITES?

So, the thing about the tools collection is that it is so broad, and there really is something for everyone. I love to tell people that we have telescopes because that is effective in helping people to see that our library (and libraries in general) is not simply a book warehouse. As the mother of a young child, I love that we circulate big bags of toppling dominoes. That’s the kind of thing that allows you to have a big, fun experience at home that you might not otherwise do, or maybe it wouldn’t occur to you. Just this evening, I took my family to a library event, and my 3-year-old played with some of our music tools, including the Blipbox Synth for Kids. From my perspective, my son got to make some noise—and that noisemaker lives at the library!