Claudine Emerson didn’t train to be a librarian, but her love for books, especially older books, has lead the full-time clinical social worker to an additional career as the new, part-time librarian at Buxton’s Berry Memorial Library. Emerson, the mother of two girls ages 6 and 3, in June took the place of Alice Pease, who served as librarian for nearly 30 years. The library, an 80-year-old building, is open 14 hours a week (less on summer). This week, Emerson, who lives in Buxton, sat down with the American Journal to talk about her new role, why she loves the library and what effect it will have on her children.
Q: What have your first two months on the job been like?
A: It’s been wonderful. It’s been an honor and a privilege to be here. The patrons are wonderful. A huge age range. Because there are a lot of historical books here, the bulk of our collection, a lot of it’s from the late 1800s, original series and first editions, the patrons seem to be older and it’s just dynamic to have them come in and talk about what they remember the library being like. Not much has changed in 80 years.
Q: What drew you to the job?
A: The books, the people, the building. The building is in remarkable condition because of its age and just the quality of some of the books that are here, too. It’s just amazing.
Q: What is your favorite piece of literature or genre?
A: My favorite is non-fiction. I particularly like science. I like mathematics. Those are my areas of interest.
Q: What are your goals for the library?
A: Well, given the age of the library, there are not too many books in the non-fiction area. That’s actually one of my goals is to build the collection by updating it in the non-fiction area. Another part of it, too, is technology and that is a goal of mine. One of the goals of mine was to bring in a computer and we have already done that. One of the overall goals is to actually get a bathroom and to make it handicap accessible so everyone in the community can use it. That is a first and foremost. Also to make it more functional for the community, where there are more events going on and patrons can utilize it on a regular basis.
Q: How does this library support the needs of the community?
A: We certainly have a large, fiction-based book collection. Those who are interested in fiction books, there’s quite a good selection. Just given our location here on Main Street, I think that we can serve the needs quite well as well as having an elementary school across the street.
Q: What is your favorite part about being a librarian here?
A: It would have to be the patrons. Meeting young and old with people from many different backgrounds and different cultures. People have different questions and the dialogue we have about books is interesting.
Q: Being a librarian, how do you think you could use this experience to help shape your children’s literary interests and futures.
A: Because they are here with me during business hours, I think they actually know that they are library assistants so they are actually being more involved then just coming here and reading and using the computers. They are actually volunteers. They are learning about circulation, how to process books, how to order books. They are learning more about how a library functions and not just what we offer for services.
Claudine Emerson says she is enjoying her new job as the librarian at Buxton’s Berry Memorial Library and hopes to expand the library’s catalog of non-fiction books.Send questions/comments to the editors.
