I’ve found myself sitting down with Ann Price, my boss at the library where students busy themselves with academics and hurried talk in briefly passing through on their way to lunch. She’s a neat, bright-eyed woman with background in English based studies, her previous job was at a library where she managed crisis situations. Everyone who meets Ann seems to take a liking to her, she’s soft spoken and caring with a very earthy air that is only extended by her kind presence and willingness to help and cater to the staff’s needs. She always has a cup of tea with her, and in classic Ann fashion, she took a few sips and gave me a big smile as if to tell me it tasted delicious to start our interview off.
Question: What made you choose being a librarian at UNE?
Ann: says how she’s worked at public libraries in the past and was in a role oriented towards crisis work and referrals, but how over time she ran out of room for growth. “When it became clear that it wasn’t going to change and was going to increase, I started to look for other jobs until I found this one.” She delves into how supervising students and filing collections looked like fun, and how it was a traditional library job in ways that felt like it would alleviate the levels of burnout she’d experienced prior.
Question: What is a typical day like at UNE for you?
Ann pauses to take a couple sips of her tea, still smiling as she always does, and probably always will. It’s a huge part of her, anyone who pictures Ann in their mind can say that she’s smiling. She talks about how beautiful the campus is, and how the drive is intricately woven with trees and vast farmland unique to Maine. “Even on the gray, grumpy weathered days, Maine is beautiful.” With her own twist, she moves the topic onto emphasizing the need to make acquaintances while attending UNE as well. “My day is a lot of networking with coworkers and working with them to make things functional in the library- a lot of teamwork.” Ann leans on that word as if she’s being held up by each hand of the library staff themselves- I can’t help but laugh.
Question: What makes working at UNE’s library special?
Ann talks of the fun community and curious students; how the whole environment has been a giant safe space for her. With the physical location of the Biddeford campus being so beautiful, I couldn’t help but agree. She comments on how wherever she finds herself on campus, when she steps outside, she feels like she’s about to take a hike. She talks of how she’s turned towards the many med students with interesting careers and how fascinating and engaging they are.
Question: As a closing statement, what’s some advice for incoming college Freshmen?
Ann takes another sip of her tea and looks to the stained-glass window next to us in deep thought. What she says next sticks with me over the next few days, I’m glad I have the chance to share it. “I would let go of expectations of a specific outcome of what your college experience is going to be.” She doesn’t pause here, in fact she glosses over one of the realest things I’ve ever heard, but I was stuck for the next minute just thinking about what my boss had just told me. Because Ann is right, letting go of expectations of a specific outcome of what one thinks college will be is so important. And it’s not just because I myself switched to an English major at a science-based university. It’s because you make connections with people you’d never thought you’d be friends with in high school. It’s skipping an important class because you need an Aroma Joes outing and the only friend with a car you know offered last minute and you haven’t been off campus in a month. It’s the fact that you’ll fail and scramble to get your grades up in a class that you were sure would be easy. It’s a snowstorm that comes out of nowhere and coming into class with full snow gear on because you thought class would be cancelled because of how horrible the walk is from Sokokis to Featherman, and you wanted to go sledding with your friends. College is so unexpected, and so random, and so tedious, so of course nothing is ever guaranteed to fit your expectations when coming.
Cathleen Miller is the library’s archives collection person at UNE. She helps students, teaches classes, and while I’ve never been directly affiliated with her work at the library, she is constantly taking student interns and teaching scattered classes here. She’s always been quite kind to me and always asks how my day is- everyone at the library has a motherly spirit, her willingness to have this interview with me over Zoom was appreciated.
Question: What made you choose being a librarian?
She explains how she got a degree in creative writing and taught a bunch of GED classes. She says how it felt like that wasn’t the life she wanted for herself, so she started volunteering at an archive in Philidelphia while she attended Drexel University, earning her Creative Writing degree at Temple University.
Question: What’s a typical day like at UNE for you?
Ms. Miller talks of how there are few typical days at UNE, but that she tends to have archival projects that are ongoing, or how she processes collections and gets things out into classes. “I might be planning classroom visits and I do send a lot of emails to people.” She laughs and continues to talk about how she works on projects for colleagues and surveys or analyzes data. She talks of the library technology like it’s the back of her hand as I begin to recall times I’ve been asked to make an appearance for our social media page- this year we’re carving pumpkins and putting them on our heads for a photo shoot.
Question: What things do students typically ask you about when they stop by?
Ms. Miller goes into detail about how usually they’re working on a class assignment and trying to find sources, or how some students who are doing research in archives want to dig deep into a collection. She mostly focuses on assignment- based things to help students to find things in the archives, databases, books, and citations.
Question: What do you do when you’re not working that’s on campus?
She talks about how she likes to go for walks, swim, and how at her home she gardens and teaches about medicinal plants. She writes, and even cares for chickens. I can’t help but be reminded of the many farms in the tri-state area and the many chickens that even my own neighbors harbored.
Question: What makes working at UNE’s library special for you?
Ms. Miller talks about her wonderful experiences with her colleagues, how everyone is nice, kind, and laid back in general. “I really like working with the students because you all are really fun to talk to and interesting and you have different views on the world.” She continues, saying how she values getting to see different perspectives every day and that students have helped her broaden her mindset. I even found myself agreeing with her in this instance, “Different viewpoints push people to view the world in lights they couldn’t have considered otherwise.”
Question: Do you have any closing advice for college Freshmen?
Finally, Ms. Miller ended my interview by telling me how more students should utilize their ability to ask for help, that they shouldn’t be afraid of it and how it’s a major thing with all the resources available on campus. “So many people are willing and excited to help you out, just don’t be afraid to ask.” The years at a college library had not worn down her gentle manner of wanting to help people at her core. Many people here are ready and eager to help, it came to no surprise that one of them was Cathleen. This stuck with me because I was always so scared to ask for help in high school only to come to college and need to- and that’s not optional. You will need help, and there will always be someone there to help you at UNE. Helping and facilitating and guiding and mentoring is the backbone to our society, basic human kindness has fostered a mindset for positive change in everyone at UNE. Reaching out may seem frightening, but it’s worth it in the end.
