Northeast Regional Coordinator Paula Newcom and I recently sat down and had a conversation about her first year working for the State Library. She and I have something in common – we both started working for the State Library last November. The following is an excerpt from our conversation.

RB: It has been almost a year now that you have been working for the Indiana State Library. Tell me about how the year has gone and what the biggest differences are between your current job and what you did as a librarian in the public libraries…

PN: I think that the last year has been very good! I’ve had a lot of new challenges and have learned a lot, but I enjoy the freedom of being able to work at home as well as travel to my different libraries and often drive to the Indiana State Library in Indianapolis to attend meetings.

I have 60 libraries in my region – the Northeast region – and I think I have gone to almost half of them since I have been hired. I have been very blown-away by what I have seen with the different libraries in my area from the smallest to the biggest. They all seem to be doing something unique in each place. And a lot of libraries have had building/renovating projects which has pleasantly surprised me.

RB: Could you give me an example of that? Continue reading →