One of our greatest joys at WiLS is hearing our members tell the stories of the big and important work they are doing – interesting new projects or initiatives, or even interesting and new approaches to old projects. And, in addition to hearing about it, it makes us even happier when we can share those stories with other members. Each month, WiLS is proud to feature an interview with one of our library members. This month, we interview Tasha Saecker, Assistant Director at Appleton Public Library and WiLS Board Chair-Elect.
These interviews are part of a series of interviews with both WiLS library and vendor partners. Your feedback is appreciated. If you have any to offer on this article, or suggestions for upcoming interviews, contact Andrea Coffin at acoffin@wils.org.
Why did you, personally, choose to work in libraries?
I was always an avid reader and grew up regularly visiting my local library in Ripon, Wisconsin which was a 20 minute drive from our house. It was where I requested to go every time I was asked, even according to family legend for one of my birthdays. I was always allowed to take home as many books as I could carry and luckily I also had two younger brothers who never minded when I piled some of my selections in their arms too.
Despite my love affair with public libraries though, I somehow never realized that they could be a career for me. I majored in English Literature in college and then planned to go into children’s book publishing. One wise advisor though pointed me to library school instead and it was at UW-Madison SLIS that I fell hard for the parts of libraries I had never understood until then. I was entirely taken by the combination of access to all points of view, protection of intellectual freedom, and service to your community. I had found my place!
Since getting my degree I’m one of those odd ducks who have never been a non-manager in libraries. My first job was in Cape Girardeau, Missouri as the Head of Children’s and Teen Services. We opened a children’s-only branch library in an impoverished section of town as well as a pop-up teen center in the main library that operated every weekday afternoon. It was difficult and rewarding work, but I missed my home state. I returned to Wisconsin after that as the Green Lake library director and have been in administration ever since.
Green Lake will always have a special place in my heart thanks to its incredible community and my discovery of the joy of working in a small library. While I was there, we were the first library in the state to offer public Internet access, through dial up modem and with a charge of a dollar an hour to cover what the library had to pay. After 11 years in Green Lake, I moved on to Menasha where our circulation skyrocketed thanks to a devoted staff and lots of ingenuity and creativity. We won Wisconsin Library of the year during my tenure there, something I will always be humbled by.
I am now in Appleton and just as with my very first job in libraries, I am helping to reinvent and discover the path forward for my library and my community. That part never ends and it’s why I’m devoted to being part of libraries into the future. We are not the quiet and staid profession that people like to label us as, instead we are thinkers, inventors, rabble rousers and revolutionaries!
What is unique about the culture of your library? How do you influence it?
Having worked in several libraries, I can definitely say that Appleton Public Library has one of the best work cultures I have ever experienced. There is a strong purpose that pervades everything we do and we take our responsibility to our community very seriously, but best of all is the sense of humor that runs under everything. There is never (and I honestly mean never) a day that I do not laugh out loud at work. Humor and laughter are the basis of what we do and as a person with a signature giggle, that’s a great thing.
All of this laughter is about the joy of working hard, seeing the bizarre that can come with public library service for what it is, and not taking things personally. It allows us to offer the best public service to our community with a smile. From simple one-on-one meetings to larger staff events, there is laughter at all of them.
I cannot take any credit for this amazing culture that I find myself in. The humor and laughter was here to greet me when I arrived. For me, I influence the culture of happiness and creativity by meeting difficulties with attentive listening and calmness, diffusing negative emotions as well as I can. My door is open to people at all levels of the library and one of the running jokes is that I have a revolving door of people coming to talk to me all day long. I love that, love the problem solving, the crafting of procedures, documents and programs, the joy of difficult jobs done well.
Our work, as that in any urban library, is not simple or easy. But it is that complexity that makes us such a strong team and offers us the ability to support one another so well. And of course, you have that giggle of mine that is an insuppressible influence all its own.
What do you think is important to know about the patrons or community you work with? What helps you understand those needs?
I think it is important to know your community well in any public library and as someone who has worked in several different cities, each community is unique. That means as a new person serving your community that you have to consciously set aside the time to just learn and absorb. And for those of us with big ideas, that can be very hard to do, even painful! But you have to figure out the dynamics of the services you offer, the subtle needs of your community, and where the library can position itself to make a real difference in people’s lives.
Here at Appleton, we are committed to really making a difference in our community and changing lives. We recently completed a strategic plan that was based entirely on community input and work was put into making sure that we heard from as many demographics in our multicultural community as possible. So for me, listening is vital, making sure that your community has a chance to express themselves to you and that you are prepared to actively listen without being defensive and learn from what you hear, creating services and solutions from that information.
In order for us to continue progressing in the transformation of library services to the digital and modern age, we need to understand our communities at a deeper level. You have to get out of your building and stop seeing your library as ending with at the front doors. Here in Appleton, our Sections work hard to make sure they are fully engaged in the community. Our reference department has been reinvigorated as “Community Partnerships” a name change that shows the new work they are doing embedded in organizations in the community and finding new ways to partner with organizations.
All of this makes our work much more complicated. It was much easier to deal in a more focused way with people who came to the library and used our resources. Being outwardly focused, listening to our communities, and allowing our patrons to be experts is flipping our traditional model upside down. These immense changes though are a huge part of what makes working in libraries so inspiring and creative for me.
What big ideas are being worked on at your library? What problems are being solved?
In 2011 the Fox Cities LIFE Study was released, a community assessment that looked at the important indicators for quality of life in our area. One area of concern that we at the library saw as something we could help with was our steady decline in third grade reading scores. Public libraries are uniquely positioned in the community to come into contact with children before they enter school. That started us down a path that would transform our service to the youngest in our community and their parents.
Our staff began incorporating even more fully Every Children Ready to Read, making sure that all of our youngest children got exposure to the key elements of pre-literacy. The data of the LIFE Study also told us that our Hmong and Hispanic communities were struggling with literacy. Through grant funding, we piloted a Hmong Outreach Specialist who did home visits to Hmong families with preschool children, showing them how to be their child’s first teacher. A year later, the City of Appleton agreed to fund that position fully with city dollars thanks to the impact we demonstrated. We then went after more grant funding and as of 2014 have a 3-year grant-funded Hispanic Outreach Specialist who is seeing similar results with her program.
In both adult and children’s services, we are seeing a real change in the way the library is viewed. We are leading the way in addressing community needs, serving as a central hub of collaboration and partnership to solve problems. One example of that is our new funding from United Way to begin a Fox Cities wide Reach Out and Read program that will be managed by APL. We are delighted by having received the funding, but even more telling is that United Way approached us to ask us to apply! It is a clear indication of the change in the way we are perceived in the larger Fox Cities community.
Do you have anything else you’d like to share with us?
I think I’d like to end with a final cheer for what libraries do and what we will do in the future. I think there are many different directions in which libraries can go. There is only one wrong answer and that is not to change. Those who cling to the old view of libraries as a warehouse of books are not going to be vital to their communities in the same way as libraries that embrace change, select a path and take that risk.
It’s frightening in the extreme to make that leap. But when you get it right, and APL has managed to do just that, you get to see what the power of libraries truly looks like, and it is spectacular.
May you all laugh a lot and scare yourselves a bit too.