Today's Hours:
By Keila Santa '25
On Tuesday, April 8th, I attended the library career panel for anyone interested in working at libraries post-grad. Five panelists from different departments of the Henry Whittemore Library shared their experiences and unique journeys to librarianship in an hour-long Q&A led by Student Engagement Coordinator Weronika Zawora. Here are some highlights from each speaker.
Rebecca Dowgiert—Scholarly Communications Librarian
Rebecca supports faculty and staff with various research needs including promoting open education resources and navigating copyright and licensing issues. Though librarianship wasn’t the path she originally intended when getting her bachelor’s in biology, she says that her background working in a clinical setting has been useful in supporting students who are looking for resources in that field. Rebecca also shared that one of her favorite things about working in an academic library is that there is so much variety in what she does: she gets to help so many different people, so she never gets bored or burnt out. She recommends that anyone looking to pursue a library degree take a management class, emphasizing that it’s an important skill to know how to manage people even if you aren’t a natural at it.
“People tend to not understand all the hidden moving parts that have to be working together for everyone to make the resources available to the public. People want information right away, but they don’t realize how much goes into it” -Rebecca Dowgiert
Jonathan Golden—Scholarly Resources Acquisitions and Management Librarian
Jonathon, an FSU English graduate who once dreamed of playing pro basketball, now deals with a variety of behind the scenes work at the library. He handles the purchasing of books, databases, and scholarly resources, as well as replacing damaged items and some overall budget management. He became interested in librarianship after seeing how much schooling it takes and earned his library degree at Simmons. Jonathan recommends future librarians take a class on theories of information science, which dissects the true meaning of “information” and how people think, evaluate, and access it.
“It’s a fulfilling job, and nobody really knows what you do—there's an air of mystery around it. It's more than just shelving books and the Dewey decimal system.” -Jonathan Golden
Colleen Maxfield—Acquisitions and e-Resources Library Assistant
Colleen works to support lots of what Jonathon does, along with handling contracts and processing invoices. Like her colleagues, she never imagined she would work at a library. Colleen majored in fashion design at FSU, but after working at Barnes & Noble and seeing coworkers leave for library jobs, she looked into it herself, realizing she preferred being around books more than selling them. Though she hasn’t obtained a master’s, she managed to get experience in multiple public libraries before landing here at FSU. Her favorite part about working at libraries is the interesting cast of characters she gets to interact with and being around people who love books as much as she does. Colleen also spoke about the “library of things” which is any library collection of non-traditional objects that can be loaned to patrons, such as kitchen appliances, tools, board games, movies, etc.
“People who are into books are their own type of people, and I like those types of people” -Colleen Maxfield
Alex Young—Interlibrary Loan Coordinator
Alex deals with helping patrons get books or materials that we borrow from other libraries. As a political science and history major, he did not plan on pursuing library science until he landed a job his senior year doing reference work at the library and loved it. He went through a hybrid MLIS program which focused a lot on academic libraries as well as back end web systems and how databases work. He recommends that anyone pursuing library science take at least one technology course, emphasizing that librarianship is a field entrenched in evolving technology, so even knowing a little bit of tech can get your foot in the door. He enjoys being able to tangibly see how he is helping people and says that it’s a very rewarding job.
“Libraries are one of the last few places where you can just go and there are no expectations of you; you don’t have to spend money, you don’t have to spend a certain amount of time—they are just open for you to visit and use what they have to offer” -Alex Young
Weronika Zawora—Outreach and Student Engagement Coordinator
Weronika works to create opportunities and programs that foster student engagement through both academic and extracurricular activities. She began studying as an international relations major with a minor in philosophy, but took a break and eventually earned her bachelor’s in environmental studies, and her master’s in communications. She encourages students to try working at a library even if they are not sure they want to get an MLIS; public libraries are always looking for new people and there are many different roads that lead to librarianship. Weronika emphasized how important it is to her to be participating in and maintaining a “third space” (any place that is not your work or home), and on top of that, maintaining one of the few spaces in society that relies on communal trust to function. This is now the seventh library she has worked at.
“Besides protecting the third space, [libraries] are at the forefront of equality, sustainability, and the field has something for everyone. I’m a believer in the central mission of the library” -Weronika Zawora
Thank you again to Weronika for hosting this event and creating questions for panelists to answer. If you are interested in working at a library in or around Massachusetts, check out the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners to see job listings near you!
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