How We Got Here: Samma’s Story

Some of you may know that I do a TikTok Live on Monday and Friday mornings from my personal account. This is because the Library’s Account (@CadottLibrary) doesn’t have 1000 followers yet. We talk books and such while I unpack and sort courier these two mornings and I get asked a lot of the same questions. You can also see our Facebook for Live Unboxing and Friday Librarian Lives.

The number of times I’m asked if I work in a bookstore is a bit odd, given the task. But it’s usually followed by one or a collection of the following:
How does a person become a librarian?
How did I become a librarian?
How long have I been a librarian?
Do I like being a librarian?

First, being a librarian means a little something different depending on how you classify the job. I’m personally of the “if you work in a library, you’re a librarian”, but for others they may claim you should only call yourself a librarian if you have a masters degree.

For my job, I hold a Wisconsin Grade II Public Library Director certification. I have a bachelor’s degree in Applied Social Science from UW-Stout (Class of 2012), which elevated my grade level. In addition to my degree, I had to take 4 classes in library work to qualify for the certification. I also have to earn 100 “Continuing Education Credits” over 5 years for renewal of my certification, 10 hours of which must be in Technology.

The Cadott Library is a Grade III library, which means I am (sort of) overqualified to be the director here. The grade of the library is based on the size of the municipal and service population, which is ~1500 and ~4000 respectively for the Cadott Community Library. In order to be a Grade I Director, I would have to hold an MLS, MLIS, or “Masters in Library Information Science”. This is a two year degree program after an undergraduate degree that typically takes about 2 years. Could I get one? Sure. The iSchool through UW-Madison is an awesome, ALA accredited program attended by folks around the US. I simply don’t want to. For a variety of reasons.

This path to being a librarian is also different state-to-state. For example, my brother-in-law and sister also both work in libraries in Minnesota. Andy has an MLS, specializing in archives. He came into libraries as a degree holder, though their state doesn’t actually require any extra education for working in libraries –however, larger metros such as Hennepin County or St. Paul libraries may have requirements for degrees. Allysa works for a small rural library, similar to Cadott, and holds nothing extra in library work other than years of volunteer service with our Aunt. Technically, anyone who works in a library who does not hold a degree is typically considered a paraprofessional in most states. But, in my opinion, that’s mostly semantics.

But how did I get here in a more general sense? Well…I’m not really joking when I say I’ve been in a library nearly ever day since I was in the 5^th grade. I was a book-a-day reader and often stopped into the school library during our morning breaks, or at lunch from the time I was in the 5^th grade and straight through to high school. I was also an assistant for several semesters to my high school librarian, since if I had a study hall or free period…that’s where you could find me.

When I was 14, my Aunt Leslie, who is now the director (…yeah, we have a lot of librarians in my family), started working at our hometown library in Augusta. In the summers, I began spending a lot of time at the library helping with Summer Reading Program, shelving books, and processing materials. I even helped with the process of Augusta joining the MORE Consortium in 2006. After leaving for college, I didn’t get to the public library as much, but I was still volunteering when I could during the summers. In December of 2010, my Aunt called and asked if I wanted a job.

“I have a job,” I told her. I was working retail and wasn’t sure that I had time for a second job so far away. She explained that she was specifically looking for someone to work on Saturdays to do basically what I had already been doing for years, for free. She’d been advertising the position, but it was so few hours that she didn’t have any takers. I was more than willing to have a reason to not work Saturdays at my retail job so, I officially joined the library staff on January 1^st, 2011.

Over time, I moved up from my “page” position, mostly doing the grunt work like shelving and book processing to being a programing librarian. My very first program was a Read To Your Pet Storytime in 2013 and I was officially an Assistant Librarian. We had one family attend with their adorable Chihuahua.

I also took over our obituary archive and genealogical research requests. This lead to my beginning to do Cemetery Walks which are some events that I have really loved putting together to learn more about the people who settled my hometown. I also began a local project, cleaning headstones in East Lawn Cemetery of Augusta, which is a skill I am glad to have. I learned a LOT about some of the really awful things we’ve thought were good to do to headstones and am glad that I’ve been able to do the work safely for the longevity of the markers.

In 2018, I had begun to feel like, if I didn’t find a way to move up in the library world, that I should probably leave libraries all together. I decided to take the plunge and apply for the job here in Cadott. I was surprised to get the interview, and even more surprised to get the job. I officially became the 5^th director in 5 years here at the Cadott Library, and as of this past October, I have been here 5 years, surpassing the previous longest sitting director in that time by two years.

For the most part, I enjoy my job. There are parts of it that I like more than others. Collection Development (buying books and weeding them from the shelves) is my favorite thing to do. I also like small projects to refresh the space and am always looking at the building critically for improvement that be made in the space we have now. I have also stated from the day of my interview that the accessibility of the library is of great importance to me. I literally helped write the book on Inclusive Services for Wisconsin Libraries.

(No, really, I did! I was part of a cohort including representatives from all 16 library systems that wrote a toolkit for libraries to access their inclusivity and accessibility. It’s available, for free, to libraries through the DPI website.)

For most of my life, the library has been so much more than a place to simply get books. Whether it was the school or public library, it was a place I always felt welcome. A place where I could be myself and find stories about people I either wanted to be like or places I wanted to know more about. Whether it was reading something for the first time or the fifth time, I could always find something to bury my nose in and disengage from real life for a while. Live vicariously through a story of somewhere far more interesting than the rural Wisconsin Dairy farm I lived on. The library opened up the world, real and fantastical, to me and I know that others would agree –possibly in far less flowery language. While there is more to me than just the library, it has become a core of my being and it bleeds into my other interests, such as writing, gaming, and even my social media presence.

So, keep in mind that while books and literacy are a big part of what we do here at the library, it’s not everything. But that’s a blog post for another time. Or several posts over time. There’s a lot to cover! I hope you’ll pop back to hear the stories from our other staff as well as more information about the library. If you have an idea for a blog post, feel free to drop it in our comments or send us a message.