Katherine Massey

I attribute my success to good education - I had an excellent education. I've also had tremendous support from my family, both my birth family and my grandparents, as well as my husband who is very supportive. As we discussed, going with the flow has been important - if something feels right, then that's something I need to do. If it doesn't feel right, I don't do it. I've been very, very fortunate to have good opportunities come my way, and I've recognized them as good opportunities and followed through. I've had so many wonderful experiences at different institutions of different types - I've worked in public libraries, in community college libraries, in university libraries, and in organizations that served libraries. I've been so lucky, and again, I've followed my intuition throughout my career and my life.

The best career advice I ever received was to trust my intuition. I had a professor in college who gave me a very significant assignment for our semester, and in talking with my fellow students, I thought they seemed to be doing something entirely different than what I had thought we were supposed to do. I talked to my professor about that, and that's what she told me - trust your intuition. It turns out I was on the right track. I have trusted my intuition in terms of accepting other positions that I have applied for. If they don't feel right after the interview, then I know that's not right for me. Even if they have offered me the position, I've said thank you, but I believe that's not going to be a good fit. And I've been on target with that, I think.

In terms of publishing, young women really should get a degree in journalism, or whatever is close to getting a degree in publications. I came about it because I grew up in a family that did it. I went to school and got a career that had a lot to do with publishing, and I knew what the right contacts were because of that. So I think I would definitely advise someone that wanted to go into publishing to get the correct credentials in it, which I don't have, but I have the knowledge. If they wanted to go into library service, I would tell them definitely to go all the way to the PhD if they want to have a career, if they want to be a high-level administrator. I did not do that - I was blessed and had many opportunities even though I did not have the PhD, I did have the master's. But I had experience, and my experience fortunately gave me many opportunities. But somebody just starting fresh at this day and age definitely needs to go for the PhD if they want to go further than just sitting on a reference desk or something, which is rewarding in itself.

In publishing, the biggest challenge is having a company like mine - a hybrid company. When I started, there were very few of us. There were only 2 others at the time that I felt were my competition, and they had been around for years. They weren't very good, either - their product was pretty sloppy, and they charged a lot of money. I don't even see their names anymore, but now there's a lot of others that are my type, my size, and there's just a lot of competition. I would say, if you were really serious about it, I would try to go with a big company and get some experience with a big company before you tried to do it on your own. It is challenging, but it is rewarding. It's exciting to see that book come out - I got a typed manuscript, and look, I've got a whole book, and it's got pictures, and it's got a pretty cover on the outside. I did that! It's really exciting.

Truth is the most important value to me. Always be truthful, even if it's painful. I think that's an incredibly important thing - always be honest and upfront about things. If they're good, certainly be honest and upfront about them, but even if something has happened and you need to make sure that people know what happened, and why it happened, be truthful about it. That's the most important thing to me.