Hey, Puppet Lady!
Beth Hull Meyer, Youth Services Library
Anderson Public Library
Master of Library Science, IUPUI (2002)
"Why are you a librarian?" That's the question I get most from middle school students when I visit for booktalks. It's a good question. Why am I a librarian?
I am currently the Teen Services Librarian at the Anderson Public Library in Anderson, Indiana. Teens definitely have an important place at the Anderson Public Library. I serve students from the sixth grade to twelfth grade (and beyond). I head up a Teen Advisory Board, maintain the Young Adult collection, visit schools and provide a number of programs for the community. My main job is to be "a friend of the young" for the teens who visit the library in Anderson. This is easy as customer service is a priority at Anderson Public Library (check us out at http://www.and.lib.in.us/).
I began librarian life as a para-professional children's librarian at the Allen County Public Library, Main Branch, in Fort Wayne. I received fantastic hands-on training and learned a great deal about becoming a professional. I was given many responsibilities, including story times, preschool puppet shows, displays, and outreach duties. It was there I started to cultivate my love for serving younger people. Once on a break, my friend Karol and I were talking about religion. Of a certain affiliation she said, "If they get you before [the age of] seven, they've got you for life." I always thought that idea applied to our work as well. If we could make the library and all its services entertaining, exciting and welcoming to a child, that good feeling associated with the library would continue on through young adulthood and beyond.
Why do we do it? There are probably as many reasons for working with youth as there are youth librarians. But what drives me? Someone really nailed it for me a few years ago. I was in a system that did not embrace the philosophies of service I learned at the IUPUI School of Library and Information Science. I wanted to visit area schools to promote library services; I was told no. Instead, I would be a part of a video advertising the services to be shown in lieu of a visit. I argued against this vehemently. My manager, exasperated, said, "You just want to go for an ego boost!" It was meant as an insult; fortunately, I did not take it as such. She was right. It is an ego boost. I work with youth for many reasons but the main reason is because I love being Miss Beth. I love walking into a middle school and hearing my name yelled. I love having eighth graders pump their arms and hiss, "Yes!" when I say I'm coming to class in a few minutes. I love being tapped on the shoulder while I'm at a restaurant, turning to find a four-year-old girl who asks, "Hey, Puppet Lady, do you remember me from the puppet show?" I love it all!
Article reprinted with permission from the author and Indiana Insight, a publication of IUPUI.
