Kaitlyn Tarczynski

The Reading of a Librarian

Around 1 o’clock I found myself standing in the lobby of the Landman Library, in front of the front desk. I had told the assistant sitting there that I was to meet with Larissa Gordon for an interview and she had called back to see if Larissa was available. After getting an okay I started back to Larissa’s office. I’ve only been back near the offices in the library once before. I took in the sight of multiple desks, covered in paperwork, and carts filled with books and packages just waiting to be opened and their contents examined.

The walk to Larissa’s office wasn’t long. Standing near the front desk you would be able to see the door that leads to her office and if the door was open you could see through the window out towards the courtyard surrounded by the library, and several different Residential halls and an office building.

After a soft knocking on Larissa’s door, I was ushered into her office and stood there for a moment as she finished some work that she was doing on her computer. In that time I took a look around her office, it was small just like the woman who worked in there. In the corner of the room was a bookshelf, black and tall, on the shelves one could see several knick-knacks: Doctor Who figures, a Dalek wind-up toy, three small hacky sacks, a picture frame, and several books. Larissa’s L-shaped desk faced the wall opposite with the window in between the two bulky objects. Next to the desk was a round table with some paperwork covering the top slightly; two chairs were placed around the desk, one beside the desk and the other closer to the door. Larissa gestured for me to take a seat as she quickly started closing the open files on her desktop. Unsure which to sit in, I opted for the one closest to the door, giving myself a full view of the office once more. After a moment the other seat was filled and we were sitting face to face.

Larissa could be described as a small bundle of energy. Although I had only talked with her once or twice before this meeting I had already seen how enthusiastic she was. Whenever passing her on campus, she could be seen with a smile on her face. Dark brown hair with crazy yet controlled curls were tied back in a ponytail at the nape of her neck. Her eyes were framed behind the pair of glasses that she wore.

As I sat in the seat across from Larissa I couldn’t help but feel nervous. In front of me, I saw a single sheet of questions that I had written down to prepare for this moment. Although I had prepared I still found it hard to form the first few questions that I was going to ask. There is no better place to start then the beginning. Larissa was raised in Northeast Philadelphia in Lansdale. Originally she wanted to become a teacher but after some consideration and talking to her father she decided to become a librarian instead. Larissa talked to a librarian at her school to find out what was the right path to take. She went to Drexel University to get her degree in Library Science. Before coming to Arcadia to be a Research Librarian she worked two years at the Dover State University in Delaware and during Grad school at the University of Pennsylvania’s Law Library with the Inter-library loans.

While I had some idea what a Research Librarian’s job was (I went to public schools where we had a good library and decent librarians to help us with any issues and questions we might have had) I wanted to know what Larissa thought her job to be. She stated that she believes that the job of a Research Librarian is to help the students with whatever questions that they might have about researching topics and the Library. She used her hands to emphasize the important parts of her speech. Part of her job is to teach research methods to students by visiting research classes and first year centered classes and hold a lesson on ways to research. It was just a few weeks ago that she came to my history research writing class and showed us how to search for primary and secondary sources both online and through different archives. At that time she walked around the room, trying to engage my class in conversation about the topics that we were researching. It was then that I made eye contact with Larissa and she prompt me to speak about my topic. She showed us various databases that we could use and gave us helpful insight into finding useful information.

Larissa commented that she really enjoys helping students with topics that aren’t normal and when the students are happy with the help that she has provided to them. The satisfaction that she gets when a student is happy with the help that she provides them is great. It’s important to enjoy the job that you do. I want to be able to go into a job that I will love.

We finished our meeting with a promise of emails in case there were still unanswered question or clarity to those already answered. Smiles and thank yous for the interview. Slipping out of Larissa’s office feeling inspired, wanting to be helpful to others just like Larissa.

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