Versatile Librarian, Ms. Emiley King, is a ‘Special Person’

Apr 08, 2018 Features / Columnists, News, Special Person

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“Despite people saying that libraries are dying, libraries have a dynamic role to play. We play a major role in terms of helping to mould people’s minds through our outreach programmes and helping to bridge the digital divide.”

 

By Sharmain Grainger

If a public library by definition is a collection of sources of information and similar resources made accessible to the public for reference or borrowing, then a librarian by logical deduction is the person who is tasked with managing such a facility.
However the opinion of Ms. Emiley King, Chief Librarian of the Guyana National Library, would perhaps differ just a bit. She certainly, based on her years of experience working in a library, can easily assure just about anyone, that the work of a librarian is not as basic as it once was.
If Ms. King is to be used as the yardstick for the modern-day librarian, then you most definitely would recognise that a librarian of her calibre also plays the role of a friend, mother, confidante, counsellor and so much more to those she encounters – both staff and clientele.
She revealed that being able to thrive in a library setting today does not merely require the desire to have a job, but rather, persons must have a love for reading and people, and everything else that comes with being integrally involved in librarianship, such as cataloguing and classification.
Ms. King understands this all too well, as she did not simply emerge as a librarian one day. In fact, she revealed it took a period of grooming for the job, a process that merely complemented an existing passion for both people and reading.

During a recent interview, she spoke extensively of how dynamic libraries have become over the years, and that the National Library has certainly not been left behind.
Founded in 1909, the Public Library has moved from being merely a facility that lends books on its shelves, to one that now includes offering a space to patrons who choose to make use of the library the technological way.
But members of the public are not limited to accessing the library’s services at its Church and Main Streets headquarters since, according to Ms. King, there are some 20 regional centres spread across the country as well, from as far as Lethem to Crabwood Creek.
DECISION-MAKER
While many know and appreciate the role that Ms. King plays as Chief Librarian at the National Library, quite a few do not know that becoming a librarian was perhaps farthest from her thoughts when she was considering professions as a young girl.
Although Ms. King remembers living with her single-parent mother, Beryl Arthur, and three siblings in New Amsterdam Berbice, she recalled that she spent some of her formative years in St. Lucia. She remembers attending, for a short period, St. Theresa Primary and then New Amsterdam Multilateral School before pursuing studies at the New Amsterdam Technical Institute.

After she completed her post-secondary studies, a young Emiley, the third of four children her mother raised, had a desire to study law. However, she was driven by her family-oriented inclination which instead saw her leaning towards immediately finding a job to lend financial assistance to the home.
This would see her opting for a teaching job at the very school she completed her secondary education.
“I enjoyed teaching, but I was persuaded by my brothers to leave, because at that time there was this mass exodus of people from New Amsterdam to Georgetown,” Ms. King recalled, as she spoke of eventually leaving for Georgetown too to pursue higher education at the University of Guyana, and for work.
The first job she secured after moving to the city was as a Recruitment Clerk at the then Ministry of Labour, Human Services and Social Security. Ms. King recalled that the Recruitment and Planning Office of the Ministry was situated at Homestretch Avenue. There she was tasked with conducting initial interviews with individuals, with a view of ascertaining which field they were best suited.

Although teaching granted her the privilege to nurture her passion for people, it was further amplified through her recruitment portfolio.
“I love my own space, yes, but if I am not around people I feel isolated…I am always ready and willing to help people, and I was getting to do this through my job,” Ms. King reflected.
Although satisfied that she was being a helpful soul, for some reason she felt that something was lacking in her life. She wanted to do so much more.
“I felt that while I was at the Ministry I wasn’t offering as much as I should, and so I wanted something that I could really engage; I really wanted to make a real impact,” Ms. King related.
Indeed she was granted the opportunity to do much more when she learnt of an opening at the National Library, and wasted no time in applying.
A NEW WORLD
She remembers so very vividly the day she accepted a job at the National Library and on Saturday, December 12, 1992, she underwent an orientation process. However, she was not becoming a librarian, but rather, a Personnel Officer. Nevertheless, she was anxious to make an impact and was confident of doing so, since her duties entailed ensuring that the most suitable persons were plugged into the appropriate positions. But it wasn’t always an easy task.
It was there she would find that it was quite a tall order to attract and retain professionals at the library. She recalled that when she first assumed duty, there were few professional librarians at the university including the likes of Ms Gwyneth Fraser now Ms Gwyneth George, current Librarian at the University of Guyana; Ms. Gwyneth Browman and the late Ms. Gillian Thompson who in fact Ms. King superseded.
“When I came we had Ms Gwyneth Browman as the Chief Librarian, who was one of the real stalwarts in the field, and we had Karen George as the Deputy and she was my mentor and my role model, and she still is,” Ms. King reminisced.
“We don’t get many of these professionals, because they have to be trained overseas and the Masters programme alone has on average an $11 million tuition fee, and then you have to pay for accommodation…so it requires serious funding,” said Ms. King. Added to this, she revealed that some librarians who would have been given assistance for training, once they would have completed a designated three-year service, would opt to move on from the National Library, leaving a gaping void.
EMBRACING A FORTE
But what Ms. King did not recognise early on was that she had exactly what it took to become a dedicated librarian. In retrospect, she always had an attraction to books.
“I was always an avid reader and I had this huge interest in people and their development…I thought the Personnel Department was my niche area, because I got to do what I wanted in terms of helping to place people, but then I realised that I was also enjoying the library in terms of reading and encouraging the staff too,” Ms. King said.
She however noted, “I wasn’t drawn to the field initially, because in my mind I still thought I wanted to get into the legal arena.” However, faced with the consistent shortcoming of recruiting professionals, by 2007, Ms. King had accepted that her fate was to help fill the void. She underwent overseas training and was Deputy Librarian before being elevated to Chief Librarian in 2014 after the passing of Ms. Thompson.
PROMOTING LITERACY
At the helm of the library, Ms. King, like her predecessors has remained on a mission to promote literacy.
“I think the library is dynamic in its own form, because we touch the lives of so many people in promoting literacy. For me, I see the library as not only the people’s university, but it is also the staff’s university. We have the benefit of being among the books and reading any title and visiting, through the books, parts of the world we might not even be able to go,” Ms. King shared.
As a matter of fact, Ms. King revealed how she had long visited a location overseas, long before she actually left the shores of Guyana to physically see that location.
“That really struck me when I went off to library school in 2007. I had visited the Houston Station before [actually] using the train to get to the Houston station; I did all that in a book,” she mused.
For this reason she is convinced that libraries, such as the National Library, will continue to have a major role to play in society, and not only for the use of students.
She recalled, “Quite recently somebody asked ‘what is the purpose of the library?’ The library is a repository for the future of our literature, our general writings by our Guyanese authors as well as Caribbean writers. We retain for future generations, so we have a truly pivotal role to play, and I don’t think that it is understood.”
“Despite people saying that libraries are dying, libraries have a dynamic role to play. We play a major role in terms of helping to mould people’s minds through our outreach programmes and helping to bridge the digital divide.”
But Ms King is of the belief that enough is not being done to highlight the important role of librarians in the society. “I think sometimes we as librarians don’t do a very good job of marketing what we do. I think we need to utilise more of the social media platforms to shout it out loud,” she added.
She is especially happy to be on board the technological movement that is being embraced by government, since she believes that it has the potential of further advancing and expanding the services offered by the library. Already, she noted, the library has been serving as a crucial source of technology to many families, many of whom haven’t the financial wherewithal to do so on their own.
Although she anticipates that Guyana will one day, in the near future, be able to manifest its middle income status to the fullest and even further development whereby families can access such services at home, Ms. King is satisfied that she currently sits at the helm of an institution that gives this support at no cost to the nation.
According to Ms. King, even if persons are not able to come to the library and understand its purpose, “we recognise that the onus is on us to reach out to the public and let them know what we can do for them.” This of course is an ongoing feature of the library and, according to the Chief Librarian, already many persons have been able to gain a better understanding new aspects of the library.
“We have been able to educate some within our older generation, because many of them have to communicate by way of using technology too. Many of them have smart phones and are using them, but even some of our young people are intimidated by technology and we have to help them too, because this is the way to go. We have to change our thinking, because what is happening now is really tremendous for libraries, so we have to reach out and let it be known,” Ms. King emphasised.
TIME OFF
But when she along with her staff aren’t brainstorming on their next move to promote the library, Ms King takes some time off for herself and husband, Mr. Clarence King. Aside from reading just about any readable publication, especially those with a mysterious flair, Ms. King enjoys travelling, and watching television shows such as CSI and “the old Matlocks”.
Although our ‘Special Person’ is not overtly religious, she did reveal that God has a constant place in her life. “I always thank Him for what He has done in my life and I think we always need to look to Him for guidance in our lives,” she added, as she also stressed the importance of family too.
Ms. King also lives by her adopted notion that ‘education is a key driver in taking you wherever you want to go’. “I have a thing about education, because it is what brought me here, and it is what will take me places…lifelong learning for me is of tremendous value. Whether it is through a child who asks a question, or a patron who stops me and says ‘Miss, can you help me to do this or that’ I am always open to learn something new, and that is how I think people should always live their lives,” Ms. King asserted.

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