My name is Abby Ryan,
and I'm a services librarian at Madison Public Library.
Central library.
When I was maybe in second grade,
someone interrupted me while I was reading a book
to ask me what I wanted to be when I grew up.
And because I was so anxious to get back to my book,
I said, “oh, I'll just be a librarian.”
True story.
But it took a while for that to actually happen.
I think it was when I was an assistant
librarian that I had that moment
that I thought, “okay, yep.
This is my vocation, this is my career,
This is where I'm meant to be.”
It made sense
finally, that my job is to learn
about everything every day.
Be a librarian.
My favorite part is actually easy.
It's learning something new every day.
Close second is being able to help people
with the information that they're looking for
that's important to them.
And then close third is
baby storytime.
Always makes your week better.
One of my favorite library memories is from when we
reopened the Central Library in 2013 here in Madison.
We had one of the wild things there from Maurice
Sendak's book, “Where the Wild Things Are.”
It's in all the official
pictures with the mayor
and the city council.
We have this giant wild thing.
And that is just
a moment of library joy for me and a memory of joy
for my particular work
as a children's librarian,
it's really supporting kids and families.
If I had a teeny tiny two-second
elevator speech, I would say, “questions welcome.