Her Story
About Cara
I've been a library director for 24 years, starting with a few years in Harper, Kansas, and then coming to Ashland in 2007. I serve as the Ashland City Librarian in a town of 800 people, about an hour south of Dodge. This is a 6,000 square foot building, which is phenomenal for a town our size, and I do everything because we're a small library - I plunge the toilets, I do children's programs, and I have to write grants if I want to have fun. Books are a very small part of what we do anymore. I was raised farm and ranch, and my family farmed until we just rented the farm out last year. I drove truck, tractor, combine, drove silage truck in Phoenix, Arizona, learned how to handle cattle and run big equipment. My husband and I farmed for a few years before we moved here and I went into this library. Maybe the best thing anybody ever did for me was to teach me how to work - I learned how to not think you were done after 8 hours. I live in a very rural community where we're farm and ranch, so I share some opinions or mindsets with my patrons. I don't think you would get along in this job, in this area, if people thought you just clocked in and clocked out. You have to carry passion for what you're doing. I also work at the school library for a couple hours in the morning with our 170 kids, and I'm now a grandma, driving my grandson over to daycare here because we don't have childcare in the town where I live 30 miles away.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Cara
01What do you attribute your success to?
Probably the best thing anybody ever did for me was to teach me how to work. I was raised farm and ranch - my family farmed, and I drove truck, tractor, combine, drove silage truck in Phoenix, Arizona, learned how to handle cattle, learned how to run big equipment. My husband and I farmed for a few years before we moved here and I went into this library. I learned how to not think you were done after 8 hours. And that's a hard thing to say, but I live in a very rural community where we're farm and ranch here, so I share some opinions or mindsets with my patrons. I do not think you would get along in this job, in this area, if people thought you just clocked in and clocked out. You have to carry passion for what you're doing. The more people I know, the better job I can do - the more people I know, the better I can serve this library.
02What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
You can do so much in a library with just the knowledge you bring into the job. But I am going to say that if you really want to succeed, you better go get your master's. Just because there will be so many more doors open to you if you have those letters after your name. And you get to know the people who are serving at the state library level. I'm sorry, but the master's does open doors for people. I know the world is getting to where you can chat GPT so many things you need to know how to do, but some of it you actually need to talk and be with another human who can show you how to rock it.
03What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
I like working with people that I know are not in it to make a buck. They're simply in it to get some work done that needs done, and to help the people who need help. And I see that in our local missionary thrift - these other causes and things, I don't know them personally, so it's harder for me to get passionate about what they're doing. The poverty rate here in southern Kansas is horrific, and I support organizations that help people who need help. My whole goal in life is to get people to read. You have to carry passion for what you're doing - I do not think you would get along in this job, in this area, if people thought you just clocked in and clocked out.
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