| Librarian gets start behind the stacks |
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| Written by PETER KUEBECK Sentinel Staff Writer | ||
| Saturday, 11 August 2012 07:46 | ||
Literally. Hanging around the library at her undergraduate alma mater convinced her that libraries were in her future. "Well, when I was an undergraduate (at the University of Tulsa, Okla.) I was a horrible student. But I used to spend a lot of time in the library, just in the stacks looking at what I wanted to, rather than doing coursework," Raine said. She noted the university had a vast underground series of stacks behind large glass walls "and you could just get down there and spend the whole day, just pulling books out and having a great time." "Mostly it was art books," she said of her browsing habits in those days. Originally planning to be a teacher, Raine went on to get her master's in American Culture Studies at Bowling Green State University in the early 1990s and then decided to give library science a try some years later. It was "a circuitous route," she said. "Because after I left graduate school I actually taught at a community college for about seven years as an adjunct professor." She then attended library school at the University of Oklahoma for two years and worked for another seven years among the 23 branches of the Tulsa City-County Library System, including the central library which she characterized as "a very interesting place. It's like any large urban library, with so many interesting characters that hang out." "I had an opportunity to see what that's like. And that was actually fun. I worked in their reference department, in their arts and humanities reference department" at the very dawn of the internet's increasing importance to libraries. From there, she moved south to the Fayetteville, Ark., public library, where she served as head of the reference department for seven years. In 2011, she joined the Wood County Library staff. "I love it here," she said. "It's a great place to work, the staff here is both professional and super talented and really fun." Raine finds herself wearing a series of different hats on the job, the largest of which is working with adult services. She ensures the library has the materials patrons want and need - including all formats, from printed material to audio books and ebooks. "There's an excellent tradition of offering programs here at the library that I want to continue to work on," she said, including author visits, and the popular series of technology programs, including working with iPads and teaching patrons how to check out e-books and download them. Among the programming this year was the Adult Summer Reading Program, which was the library's most successful since 2007, boasting an increase in participation of 191 percent over that year. The participants read 974 books, amounting to nearly 302,500 pages. "When I wear my assistant director hat, I do a lot of number crunching to see how our performance measures are coming along. I actually enjoy doing that a lot," she explained. "This was a person who did not do well in business college, but I really enjoy seeing the picture the numbers paint for us." It goes without saying Raine is an avid reader, and a self-described "hardened cynic" when it comes to books. "I like thrillers that are fairly complex," she said, with authors like Ann Patchett and Eliot Pattison numbered among her favorites. She's also a devotee of British detective novels, including the Luther series by Neil Cross. Coming back to Bowling Green after more than 20 years away wasn't a big shock, she said. "The things that I loved about BG were still the same. Some of the physical layout has changed." Raine added, "I wasn't shocked because some of my very best friends in the world I made here in Bowling Green while I was a graduate student, so I've been visiting once or twice a year for 20 years." |
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