Librarian Lives What our librarians do on a daily

By Jeremiah Aziz

As a student walked into their library, they’re greeted by their librarian with a game. The name of that librarian is Courtney Ewing and she loves being with her elementary school students.

“The best part of my day”, Ewing said, “is when the kids come in and we’re hanging out and doing lessons.”

Libraries are some of the most important places in a city, as they keep the knowledge of the world and collections of the most wonderful stories. This certainly holds true in

Austin where there have so many wonderful libraries. However, libraries are nothing without the people who tend to them: librarians. Librarians keep the collections relevant, help you find books, and surprisingly much, much more.

The path to becoming a librarian can be unexpected, but Jill Brady, the librarian at Eastside Early College High School, said her path was rather straightforward.

“I had been an English major,” Brady said, “so I had been really interested in literature.”

After college, Brady taught in Los

Angeles before realizing she could become a librarian.

“I thought ‘Oh, that sounds like a good job’,” Brady said, “As long as I’m with literature, I’m happy.”

The path for Melissa Wise, youth engagement and world languages librarian at Austin Public Library wasn’t quite as simple.

“I graduated and was like, ‘Oh, shoot, well, what do I do now?’” Wise said.

After some pondering, she decided to become an intern at her local library, where she worked for about four years, before teaching in Japan for six years.

“It wasn’t intended to be six years, but it turned into six years,” Wise said. “I thought it would just be one year, but I really loved it so much. Then I was like, ‘do I have to choose between libraries and children and education?’”

Wise eventually decided she could get the best of both worlds by becoming a children’s librarian.

“I figured out that maybe my best path would be to be a children’s librarian,” Wise said.

For Ewing, the Casis Elementary librarian, her career came much later.

“It wasn’t my first choice in a career,” Ewing said.

Ewing originally graduated from college and taught second graders for 11 years before wanting to try something different. She went back to college and got her master’s degree in library sciences, and became an elementary school librarian.

“I just kind of started thinking about being able to keep that love of teaching kids and being around kids all day,” Ewing said, “but also books, and doing something a little bit differently.”

Being a librarian isn’t so easy. For our school librarians, oftentimes they’re the only ones in the library.

“Here at my library, which isn’t the same as all the libraries, I am the only adult that works here,” Brady said.

It’s tough to be the manager of a whole space, but Brady certainly does her job well. She has an army of senior office aides to help.

“The office aides are mostly seniors,” Brady said, “and they can do everything an adult can do. They’re very helpful.”

Similarly, the librarian at Casis also has to manage her own collection.

“It’s tricky because librarians juggle a lot of things,” Ewing said.

While Brady and Ewing are alone in their schools, for the public library librarian, things are quite different.

“I really love working with a team this big,” Wise said, “because I know that there’s a limit to the things that I can do, and working with a big team, we all bring different perspectives, information, and experience to the table.”

While working in a large team can be wonderful, issues can arise if you’re not careful.

“The hard part of working with this many people,” she said, “is figuring out effective ways to communicate.” don’t love books! They each have some stories they enjoy.

Being a librarian has its upsides. Librarians love the kids they get to work with.

“My favorite part is anytime I’m with students,” Ewing said.

Ewing is not alone in her opinion, as Wise also adores the kids, especially when she’s reading to them.

“The current series that I like,” Wise said, “is a series called Remixed Classics.”

This is a series of rewritten classics like Little Women, Robin Hood, and Treasure Island, all rewritten by contemporary youth-adult (YA) authors.

“I think my favorite part is story time,” Wise said, “it’s a lot of fun, and I love getting to make people laugh.”

Like the other librarians, Brady also loves her high schoolers.

“My favorite part is the people because the students here are really funny,” Brady said, “so I get to be around funny people all day.”

A librarian isn’t a librarian if they

For Brady, her favorite book is a masterpiece, originally published in 1943

“My favorite book of all time is The Little Prince,” Brady said.

While that’s her favorite book, she also really enjoys books by Alan Gratz, a YA historical fiction writer. For Ewing, her favorite book is a heartwarming story about a little China rabbit.

“If I had to pick my one all-time favorite,” Ewing said, “it would be The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane by Kate DiCamillo. It’s just such a sweet story.”

While librarians have their own personal favorites, their “customers” have some different books that they love.

“Kids are always looking for hugely popular series,” Wise said, “like Dog Man or The Baby-Sitters Club graphic novels.”

Likewise, Ewing’s elementary schoolers also love graphic novels.

“The books that get checked out the most,” Ewing said, “are always kind of the same ones. In terms of graphic novels, all of the Dog Man is always gone, and the Amulets are always gone. Our graphic novel section is usually pretty picked over.”

This trend isn’t quite the same for high schoolers, as they prefer romance and murder mysteries.

“Certain books are pretty popular right now,” Brady said, “like the Colleen Hoover books.”

The students’ opinions about books can teach librarians a lot about them.

“I work with teenagers and they can be very illuminating about the teenage experience,” Brady said. While the books teach us about the kids, the kids are learning from the books. This makes it imperative that the books are of high quality.

“Part of me is always hunting specifically for my next favorite book to read during

Unfortunately, there are some downsides to the job.

“My least favorite part, probably, oh gosh,” Ewing said, “is shelving books. I just get so tired of doing it.”

The dislikings vary, as Brady has a different distaste.

“My least favorite is if and when I’m pulled in multiple directions that book, and I don’t find anything that they want, and then they have to leave,” Wise said, “the other one is all the stereotypes about libraries and librarians. We are not the shushy, old ladies with buns and their glasses on a chain.”

While everything isn’t perfect, Austin’s librarians push past their obstacles every day to help the world to become a better place.

Librarians are constantly working to improve the lives of the next generations. What librarians love most is the kids they get to work with.

“Getting to work in the central library,” said Wise, “getting to work with kids and families, it’s really fantastic. I love that I get to do it.” storytime,” Wise said, “I’m definitely thinking about books more critically than I would if I weren’t in this role as a librarian.”

Wise and Ewing have a similar adoration of children’s books.

“I love children’s lit,” Ewing said, “because I feel like they can be a little bit more fun and fanciful and silly.” aren’t possible,” Brady said.

Wise has some specific and different things that she doesn’t like.

“There are two things that I like least, one of them is when a kid wants help to find their next favorite

Courtney Ewing prepares the Casis Elementary Library for her readers. Evidentley, checking in books is not her fondest activity. Photo courtesy of Courtney Ewing