{"id":11080,"date":"2013-03-11T08:30:32","date_gmt":"2013-03-11T12:30:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/?p=11080"},"modified":"2019-01-13T20:20:16","modified_gmt":"2019-01-14T02:20:16","slug":"mary-kuipers-adult-services-librarian","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/?p=11080","title":{"rendered":"Mary Kuipers …Adult Services Librarian"},"content":{"rendered":"

This interview is over 1 year old and may no longer be up to date or reflect the interviewee\/interviewees’ positions<\/span><\/h2>\n

by Sara Dixon, Head Editor, INALJ Kansas<\/a><\/p>\n

An Interview with Mary Kuipers \u2026Adult Services Librarian<\/span><\/h3>\n

Mary is the kind of librarian I want to be: helpful, always cheerful, and in love with her job.\u00a0 She has given me the opportunity to get some hands on library experience, working in adult reference at the Leon County Public Library in Tallahassee, Florida. \u00a0Mary was happy to answer questions and share some insight with INALJ website readers.\u00a0 (Her actual response when I asked to interview her was, \u201cLove to! J\u201d)\u00a0 Her love of public libraries is evident in the interview below.\u00a0 \u2013 Sara Dixon, Head Editor of the Kansas Jobs Page
\nSara:<\/strong> How did you find (and get) your current job?
\nMary:<\/strong> Briefly–by obsessively checking Leon County’s job website several times a week.<\/p>\n

More fully–while in library school I\u00a0tried to develop a job search strategy that would cast a wide net but was still tailored to my needs and interests. Public libraries are my passion and at the time I was attending school in southeast Michigan, so using Google\u00a0and\u00a0Google Maps\u00a0I did a search for public libraries within a 60-miles radius of my residence. I chose this distance because, having\u00a0grown up in\u00a0the\u00a0countryside and\u00a0being used\u00a0to commuting for school and work, I was willing to drive up to an hour away from my residence. 20 or so libraries resulted from this search, none of which stated on either their own or their related city or county website that they were hiring. But I still sent them all a letter of interest and a resume, highlighting my skills and tailored as much as possible to their potential needs based on what I could discover about each library from its website (which sometimes wasn’t much). I chose not to rely on\u00a0an online\u00a0job search engine\u00a0because my fixed location was limitation enough to narrow my search down to a manageable degree; I didn’t feel I needed a search engine to\u00a0help me\u00a0explore opportunities within\u00a0such a small area. I also didn’t fully trust them–although I regularly check www.indeed.com<\/a>, I noticed then\u00a0as now that\u00a0such search\u00a0engines\u00a0sometimes miss available positions I learn about in other ways. Consequently, I preferred\u00a0to go\u00a0right to the source–the library, city, or county\u00a0employment website itself. These efforts did not yield any fruit, but it was good practice for future endeavors.<\/p>\n

After graduation (and two internships which I found through\u00a0an internship-specific search engine\u00a0that was available through my school), I was still seeking a full-time position. No public library in SE Michigan was hiring, but that was no surprise because there\u00a0are\u00a0two library schools\u00a0in the area\u00a0so competition is pretty fierce. I\u00a0knew it was highly likely that I would have to move to find a full-time position, so I was prepared to\u00a0give up my apartment and move in with family to continue the job search elsewhere. I have a pretty amazing family, so I had two options. My\u00a0brother\u00a0and\u00a0sister-in-law in\u00a0southwest Michigan\u00a0were\u00a0expecting their\u00a0first baby and\u00a0invited me to stay with them\u00a0to help\u00a0us both out. My sister was pursuing her PhD\u00a0in northern Florida\u00a0and\u00a0she invited me to stay with her\u00a0in exchange for covering the utilities. I am\u00a0sooo not a youth services kinda librarian, plus after\u00a0nearly 30\u00a0years in my beloved homestate I was ready to try living somewhere else. So I broke my lease, sold everything from my plush couch to my crumby toaster, packed\u00a0my clothes, books, and cat into my ’99 Saturn, and drove 1,000 miles south to Leon County, Florida.<\/p>\n

Once in Florida, I continued the job search using the same strategy–I again searched Google and Google Maps for all the public libraries within a 60-mile radius from my new residence\u00a0and sent\u00a0them all letters of interest and a resume. At the same time I was also visiting dozens of\u00a0local\u00a0businesses, mostly retail establishments, inquiring if they were hiring and filling out applications either on-site or online. After about two months I found a part-time job at a local Borders bookstore, which gave me a bit of health insurance and just enough of an income to scrape by. Working for\u00a0eight bucks an\u00a0hour in a retail store\u00a0with a master’s degree and a\u00a0couple\u00a0of student loans was pretty hard on both the ego and the wallet. But\u00a0I continued monitoring\u00a0my\u00a0list of libraries within a 60-miles radius from my residence, checking the employment section of their websites\u00a0a couple of times a week.<\/p>\n

At this time I also\u00a0began using\u00a0www.indeed.com<\/a> to search for library jobs across the eastern half of the United States from Maine to Florida. I focused on this part of the country because after growing up surrounded by\u00a0the\u00a0summer-green trees and winter-white hills of Michigan,\u00a0I’m not especially interested in the\u00a0flat plains and arid deserts of the western United States. I applied for a number of jobs all over the eastern half of the country, each time envisioning what it might be like to live there, each time being disappointed when I received a rejection letter or email, and each time moving on as\u00a0quickly and\u00a0hopefully as possible\u00a0to the next opportunity on Indeed.<\/p>\n

After about six months of this, I was delighted to find several positions being advertised on the Leon County Public Library’s website. I applied for two of them, a full-time position in the circulation department that did not require a library degree, and a part-time position in the\u00a0Adult Services reference\u00a0department that did.\u00a0I hit the application with everything I’ve got–having\u00a0picked up tips from a number of\u00a0employment books, articles, and websites, I was careful to tailor the application and resume as much as possible to the job postings, deliberately pulling out language from the job description and using specific examples to demonstrate my skills in the required areas. I was\u00a0excited when I got the call inviting me to an interview and I prepared\u00a0for it as I usually do, typing up the 10 most common interview questions and what my answers would be if I were asked them. I practiced these answers repeatedly over the next few days, both silently and aloud, generally while pacing around the house. I wasn’t\u00a0memorizing\u00a0my answers\u00a0word for word, but I wanted\u00a0certain situations and phrases\u00a0to come readily to mind when asked to\u00a0provide\u00a0examples\u00a0demonstrating skills such as customer service, conflict resolution, communication, flexibility,\u00a0and familiarity with library resources and technology.<\/p>\n

As usual, I don’t remember a word of what I said during the interview–I\u00a0am capable of\u00a0interviewing well but it’s always a stressful enough experience that I seem to block most of it out afterwards. I\u00a0remember that\u00a0there were three members\u00a0of the interview committee and that one of them was the library director; I remember\u00a0that I\u00a0made a conscious\u00a0effort\u00a0to\u00a0look at each of them while answering the questions. I remember emphasizing my passion for public libraries–I’d been told by my previous supervisor at my internship that it was the passion I demonstrated that got me the job. I took down\u00a0everyone’s names and sent them individual thank you letters after the interview, again tailored as much as possible to the specific questions they had asked or answered. About a week later\u00a0I\u00a0found a message on my phone telling me to call the library.\u00a0I made my return call\u00a0while\u00a0on break at the bookstore; there being no privacy anywhere else, I called from the loading\u00a0dock behind the store. One of the three interviewers (my future supervisor) informed me that I was their first choice for the part-time Adult Services reference librarian position and asked if I was still interested, which of\u00a0course I was. I accepted the position, she congratulated me, and I thanked her; after hanging up I danced for joy beside the dumpster behind the bookstore.\u00a0I later heard from\u00a0the\u00a0director that she remembered the letter of interest I had sent six months before and was impressed by my\u00a0initiative.<\/p>\n

For the next year, I worked part-time at both the bookstore and the library and regularly checked Leon County’s employment website for full-time librarian positions.\u00a0During that time two\u00a0full-time librarians left the department;\u00a0happily\u00a0the\u00a0county decided to fill their positions, which doesn’t always happen\u00a0because\u00a0a shrinking county budget sometimes\u00a0means open positions go unfilled for months or are\u00a0eliminated altogether.\u00a0The positions were advertised as internal promotional opportunities, which is pretty common in Leon County–generally part-time positions are far more likely to be open to the general public and full-time positions are available only to current staff. I\u00a0was interviewed for the first position to open up when a coworker was promoted to branch manager,\u00a0but although it was close I was not the committee’s first choice. I was told to hang in there because there was certainly a\u00a0place for me at the Leon County Public Library,\u00a0and when\u00a0another coworker retired a few months later\u00a0I applied for her full-time position. I didn’t expect to be the only\u00a0one to apply, but I was–I was offered the\u00a0position without even having to interview. After receiving this news\u00a0I called my family and announced that I was at last a full-time librarian, a year and a half after getting my library degree.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Sara:<\/strong> If you could take any of your hobbies and create a job out of them or integrate it into your job what would it be? And how?
\nMary:<\/strong> Patrons ask reference questions about everything under the sun, so there are plenty of times when patrons’ interests overlap with my own. But I chose to become a librarian because I want to help people, so regardless of my personal hobbies it’s satisfying enough–enormously so–to be able\u00a0to help the unemployed search for jobs, students\u00a0write papers and do projects, seniors citizens master their new ereaders, small business owners find sample business plans, taxpayers download the correct forms from the IRS’s website, and everything else we do at\u00a0the public library.\u00a0So except that a coworker and I, having recently discovered the secret door to the roof,\u00a0are considering installing a rooftop garden\u00a0at the library, I would say that my hobbies are already sufficiently integrated into my current job. Is helping people a hobby? I enjoy helping others (especially when they’re grateful, which library patrons often are), and I seem to have a need to be needed. This is the part of me, quite apart from my hobbies,\u00a0that being a librarian satisfies.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Sara:<\/strong> Do you have a favorite library?
\nMary:<\/strong> The Canton Public Library in southeast Michigan. It was at CPL that\u00a0I was first\u00a0absolutely positive\u00a0that\u00a0being a librarian was my calling. My first day on the reference desk\u00a0I remember thinking, “I can do this. This feels like home.”
\nSara:<\/strong> How about your favorite book?
\nMary:<\/strong>\u00a0 Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte – her chilly descriptions of the moors remind me very much of the Michigan falls and winters I remember from my childhood.
\nSara:<\/strong> Are there any blogs or websites INALJ readers should be following?
\nMary:<\/strong><\/p>\n