I interviewed my practicum supervisor, Jessica Kanaan, who is the Library Supervisor at Celina Public Library. My concentration is in archives for my studies, but my practicum is taking place in a Public Library. I work there currently as a Library Aide and really enjoy my work, while trying to work on skills that will transfer to my future archival work. Because of this, I mostly wanted to pick Jess's brains about how she saw her job generally, and how archives and public libraries work together, and could work together in the future. 

I first wanted to get an idea of what her position is like, so I asked what the hardest part of her job was. She answered that the hardest part was managing people, both the staff and the public. She said that as  you rise in the library field it becomes less to do with face to face interactions and more operational. Jess talked about working on trying to make things run smoother, doing things like changing the Young Adult section to the Teen section to make it clearer to patrons what that section is. She related that to archives and talked about how sometimes the technical jargon used in archives can make things inaccessible to people, and how simplifying the language can help with that.

 I also asked about the new upcoming move of the library to a new larger building, and what things she hoped to change and what she things hoped to keep from that move.  She said that she wanted to change things to add more formalized policy, so that library aides would not have to wait on an answer to questions, as opposed to the informal mode of things currently which is left over from being a previously rural library. Jess said that she wanted to keep the level of customer service that we had when we moved to the new library and impress upon new hires how important that was. I also asked her what kind of concerns are she was looking out for in the next 5 years in libraries. She said that for our library specifically she was worried the new library would not have enough space. She also said that generally she was concerned about libraries losing funding in some places, and about having to keep up with fast changing expectations about what services libraries offer, and said that in the last 5- 10 years  people wanted more social services and technology offered, but lately not as much. 

I then moved on to asking more archive specific questions.  I asked her what skills I was learning from public library work, did she think would be most useful in future archival work? She said that she thought it would be knowing how to deal with people. Jess said that having a customer service background would enable me to be adaptable to be able to work with different people. I asked her if she ever considered going into another area of library work, like archives or academic libraries. Jess said that she didn't, as she was not attracted to the uncertainty of funding that comes with that work, always trying to apply for grants or contacting donor alumni. 

My final question was about how she thought archives could be better utilized by public libraries as a resource. She said that archives doing more public outreach and interactive programs, in conjunction with local libraries would help generate interest and make the archives more accessible.  She talked about how creating programs that might be interesting to different age points, because different age groups might have different interests, was great  to help you translate a passion to people with a different life experience than you.   She mentioned a program run by a previous aide, Haley, reaching teens with a vinyl painting event and myself reaching out to to the senior center to get people interested in a genealogy class.  She talked about a local library in Arizona had what they called a viewery, at the back of the library, which had glass cases where there were local history displays that changed monthly with some archival materials, like maps and things, and that she found that really interesting. We talked about the Texas Fashion Collection, and how they do displays with a local mall during the holidays, and she told me about how the Musical Instrument Museum in Arizona where they have a room where they do preservation work, and there is a window where people can watch them while they do it. I thanked her for her time, and she encouraged me to come back with more questions any time. 

This was a very informative and helpful interview for me. I liked learning more about how she saw her position, and where she saw the future of our library going. I also appreciated how she related our work at the public library to the future work in archives I hope to do. I think what I learned was that even in libraries that work very differently, the core goal of getting people information that they need ties us all together. And that having an enthusiastic passion for your work, is infectious, and helps other people become more interested in things that they normally wouldn't be interested. Thanks Jessica, for a great interview!