Katie Boren - The Stars at KLIC: Journey Story of our Staff

 

By Katie Boren

I did not always know I wanted to be a Librarian. But I knew from my first semester working at the Chatt State Library as a student worker in 2015, I wanted to make it back here someday. I changed my major a couple of times until I landed on English Literature. A few months after graduating from Tennessee Tech in 2019, I stumbled upon a part-time library assistant job posting for a public library in Georgia. I was not offered the position, but they did offer me an internship. And just like that, I was thrown into my very first Summer Reading Program and I loved every second of it. From there I grew from intern, to part-time, to full-time Young Adult Programming Coordinator.

While I loved the public library world, I knew that if want to be an Academic Librarian one day I would have to go back to school. So January 2020, I began my online Masters of Science in Information Sciences program through UTK. Go Vols! (Funny story: The first time that I ever sang "Rocky Top" was at my graduation and I barely knew the words). Though it wasn't always easy, I had a lot of fun in library school! I got to take special topic courses like graphic novels, web design, young adult programming, etc. In one class, our final project was to write and create a Summer Reading Program completely from scratch. Using my previous knowledge of them, I had a blast creating my own.

By April 2022, just a few weeks from graduating, I left my public library job and was offered a temporary job at Chatt State! Though it was just for the summer, I gained valuable skills and experience for what it takes to be an Academic Librarian. After the summer was over, I acquired a Librarian position at a small academic library in Chattanooga. In a time when Librarian jobs were hard to come by, I was elated to see an opening once again at Chatt State! I am now Library Assistant 3, in my dream library. Once again completing a similar cycle of student workers, to temporary contract, to full-time Library Assistant.
Hey look Ma, I made it!