Patrick Jones with World Wrestling Federation superstar |
Patrick
Jones Send Email to Patrick at: patrick@connectingya.com Visit his
website
at: |
 Authors Among Us - Children's Writers Who Are or Who Have Been Librarians |
|
Featured Titles by Patrick
Jones
 |
Things Change Walker Young Readers, ISBN: 0-8027-8901-3 April 2004 Purchase this book from Amazon.com Read about Things Change on the Walker website. |
 |
Connecting Young Adults
and Libraries : A How-To-Do-It Manual (How-To-Do-It Manuals for Libraries, No 59) Neal Schuman Pub; ISBN: 1555703151 |
 |
Do the Right Thing! :
The Best Practices for Serving Young Adults in School and Public Libraries Neal Schuman Pub; ISBN: 1555703941 |
| Find out more
about Patrick Jones' writing on his website at: http://www.connectingya.com/publications.html |
|
| What influenced you to become a
librarian?
I started working as a shelver while in college. I already had one part time job but needed another and it was only eight hours a week, plus I didn’t have to wear a uniform. I found I liked it ? not so much working with books, but connecting people and information. While I am not, for a librarian, a big reader, I am an info junkie. Do you have a library/information science degree? Yes. University of Michigan; class of 1984. What kinds of library positions have you held and where? After shelving for a while, I got promoted to be a “para” and got to do reference work. I then went to library school where I again held two jobs ? working in reference at the grad library and at the business library. After library school, I moved to Georgia and worked at the Savannah Public Library as a reference librarian. Left there for Springfield Massachussetts to work as a young adult librarian. Loved it and moved on to be a Young Adult Regional Manager at the Cuyohoga County Library in Ohio. Did that for a while, then decided as much as I liked young adult work, I wanted to try my hand at being a branch manager which led me Fort Wayne, Indiana. My partner decided after a few years in the Fort to get a PhD, so we moved to Houston, Texas so she could work on that. There I worked at a school library until the opening for Youth Services Coordinator came up at Houston Public Library. She is just about done with her PhD and got a job in Minneapolis. I am working as a sub librarian for both the Hennepin County and Minneapolis Public Library systems. How long were you, or have you been,
a
librarian? My first professional job started in Feb 1995 ? so 15 years. Are you currently working as a librarian? Kinda ? I am working in the library field consulting and doing special projects, but not on a public service desk and not in a full-time library job. Do you plan to continue in the profession? Figuring I will not write the great American YA novel, I will probably remain in this field. Which came first in your life, your career as a librarian, or writing for young adults and for adults who work with them? Being a librarian Did your library work have anything to do with becoming a young adult writer and writing about young adults services? Yes, my writing is an extension of that work. Did your library work directly influence your work as an author? The professional books, articles, and essays I have written are directly related to being in the field and seeing “information gaps” in the profession. The essays I have published outside of the library field came about through contacts made while working in the profession. The YA novel I am working out drew directly out of my work reading so many YA novels and thinking so many were so bad, that I could do better. What are the greatest benefits of being a librarian to you as a writer? That I knew how to do research and that I have any idea what my “audience” is looking for. Are there any drawbacks to being a
librarian and also a writer? Just that there are not enough hours in the day. If you write while working as a librarian (or did), how do you manage the time-juggling act? I have always been good at multi-tasking and time management. I set monthly writing goals and normally have the discipline to make them. That said, I have been rewriting a novel for ten years, so nothing is perfect. I also never waste anything: if I speak at conference, it becomes an article. If I write an article, it becomes an idea for a book. Do you find any conflicts or job-related difficulties in being both a writer and a librarian? Sadly, I find some folks really resent you because of it. I have always tried to separate my writing and workshop presentation business from my job. Do you feel that librarianship has specific benefits to you as a writer? Mainly making contacts and knowing about
publishers. New Title by Patrick
Jones: YA Novel Things
Change, April 2004 |
Return to the Authors Among Us main page
Last Updated May 30, 2004