Hello, welcome to the careers for kids podcast where kids learn careers.
This is Maxwell Valencia.
This is Henry Morrison.
And today we have Mary Parmelee, director of youth services in the Westport Library.
Thank you mary Parmelee, for coming.
You're welcome.
And you know what?
You can just call me Mary.
Okay, Mary.
And tell us what you currently do right now.
So I am, as you said, the director of youth services.
So here at the Westport Library, that means that I am responsible for programs and collections
from birth until age 18.
So we go all the way through high school, basically, for youth services.
So I have a teen librarian and I have children's librarians that report to me as well as shelters.
We have about somewhere between 18 and 20 people working in our department right now.
I like that.
That's you really must have really helped a lot of kids.
Yeah.
And that's the best part of the job.
The best part of the job is working with kids.
And the job is not just about the money.
It's also about like how you impact the world.
When you're working in a public library, the job is definitely not about the money.
Let me just say that first and foremost, you don't go into this for the money.
We are a nonprofit.
Yes.
So we're limited in how much money is raised.
We're supported 80 percent by the town, but 20 percent of our budget has to be privately
fundraised.
Yeah.
And we make a lot less money than school librarians.
I like that.
It's a good lesson.
Yeah.
Tell me more about your career and how you got to this position.
So I'm old, so I've done a lot of things in my life.
And I have many degrees.
So I went to college and then I went to law school and then I got my master's of law in
taxation.
I worked for a Wall Street law firm doing mergers and acquisitions.
Then I worked for PepsiCo.
And then after I had my kids, after a while, I decided that I wanted to take some time
off.
So I got involved in politics in town, local politics.
So I was on the Board of Education for eight years.
And then when I finished with that, as I was finishing with that, I wanted to do something
else and I wanted to do something that I just liked, something that was just fun.
So I became a shelver in the children's department here at the Westport Library.
And then I became a substitute.
And then I got my master's of library science.
I was working as a paraprofessional at the high school library.
And there was an opening here.
So I applied for it and I became a children's library.
And from that, I became the coordinator of children's services.
And then they rolled teen into it.
So I became the director of youth services.
What inspired you to have a job here?
And how you got to this position?
Why did you want to do this job?
Because as well, like I said, I had worked at a Wall Street law firm.
So I had done the mergers and acquisitions where you're working around the clock and
you're dealing with multi-million dollar deals.
And it wasn't fun.
Like it just wasn't fun.
And I decided that I didn't want to have a job that took that much of my life.
I wanted to have a job where I could enjoy my life.
So when I started looking at working part time, I decided I was going to do something
that I enjoyed.
And I've always loved books.
So I decided I would start.
So I applied here and I applied at Barnes and Noble.
And I got a part-time job here.
And then like I said, I was working at the high school library and I got to see the difference
between what school librarians do and what the librarians in the public library do.
And the things that I enjoyed the most about the job were the things that happened all
the time at the public library, but only sometimes at a school library.
So I decided that I wanted to work and be a librarian at a public library and not a
school librarian.
And that actually surprised me because when I was on the board of education, I really
liked everything to do about education and the Westport schools.
But this was just more fun.
Oh, yeah.
So it must have been really fun for you.
Like you finally get to have a fun job and you also get some break time to have even
more fun.
Yeah.
I mean, yeah, I agree with Maxel on that one.
Like it's got to be a lot of fun going from a job.
But just in general, having a fun job or it's flexible and you actually enjoy it for the
most part, especially just coming from a job that you didn't enjoy and didn't feel like
was worth your time.
And what part of your job do you enjoy the most and you do not enjoy the most?
What I enjoy the most and this again, this is because I'm not just a public librarian,
I'm a children's librarian.
I like working with kids.
So the most fun is like I do programs for little kids that you might have gone to when
you were little.
And by little, I mean, like, I think first graders are big.
So I do birth to five and birth to three, like real little kids programs.
And I like that.
And then the other thing, I mean, I literally just came from doing book talks at Greens
Farms Elementary.
I love talking with kids about books and how finding out what they like and getting them
to read more books.
And then what I don't like about the job is the amount of time I have to spend writing
emails.
Oh, like if they read so many emails to us.
Well, to you it's nothing.
That was like, that was easy.
Like there are times where I have to like, I have to, I literally can spend six hours
a day just writing emails.
What?
Yeah, that's really crazy.
I mean, is it, but is like all the sending of emails worth your job and what you do?
It's something that you have to do.
You know, it's email was supposed to make our lives easier, but it didn't.
And so, you know, I just get, I get a lot of emails from people and it's, it's not polite
to not respond.
Yeah.
Was this the dream job you imagined yourself doing when you were a kid?
No, I kind of expected that.
Really?
Yeah.
Yes.
When I was a kid, I was convinced that I always knew I wanted to go to law school and I did.
And when I was in law school, I wanted to be a consumer protection lawyer, but law school
costs a lot of money.
And being a consumer protection lawyer, you'd probably make less than you make in a library.
So I decided that I would, and I had the opportunity to work at a Wall Street firm, which is something
that not everybody has the opportunity to do.
So I decided I was going to do that.
And so that's what I did.
And yeah, like who were your idols when you were little?
Who inspired you?
Doesn't have to be a librarian or a lawyer.
Like who did like inspire you to do this?
So I, and I'm going to tell all the listeners this.
Henry and Maxwell were kind enough to send me these questions, some of these questions
in advance, which was great because it took me, I was really thinking who were my idols
when I was, you know, when I was younger and you know, the only person that I could really
think of was Bobby Kennedy.
Who's that?
See?
Yeah.
But now, now this is where you guys are going to have to like do some research and learn
some things on your own.
But you've heard of John F. Kennedy, who was our president.
He had a younger brother named Bobby Kennedy and Bobby Kennedy was running for president.
What?
Yeah.
He was running for president and he was assassinated.
Oh no.
Yep.
And I really admired him because he's, he really seemed to stand up for everybody.
And I thought he was going to make a big difference in our country, possibly the world.
He said he was going to get us out of the Vietnam War because we were fighting the Vietnam
War at the time.
And I just, I really admired him.
And I would say probably he was the only person that I kind of idolized when I was little.
I think I get you.
Like how did you, how inspired you?
Like if I were like you, I'd definitely be inspired.
Yeah.
Well, I had three old, I have three older brothers and there was a chance that they
were going to go fighting in Vietnam.
And what was the biggest highlight of your career?
I think the biggest highlight of my career, like there's many, but I think the thing that
is, that stands out the most is when I get to meet authors and I've gotten to meet a
lot of authors.
And like I can, like I had dinner with John Luth one night.
I've had dinner with Raina Telgemeier.
I had a fabulous conversation with Sharon Draper.
And it's like, they're like normal people and like you, like they write, they have such
incredible talent and they have this ability to convey all of these emotions through the
written word.
And just getting to meet them is just unbelievable.
Like I knew Raina Telgemeier.
I liked her books.
She's one of the nicest people and her husband is also nice.
Like they are so nice.
Like you're like, you're a star and they like, they would, they went around.
I was in a banquet that they were at.
I was at their table.
They went around and had a conversation with every single person at the table.
Like they made a point of talking to every single person.
They're really nice.
Very nice.
Like if I were someone, I think they're nice.
Yeah, I feel like, I mean, I don't know why I feel like this, but I feel like a lot of
just a lot of like celebrities, they're just like famous people in general.
Wouldn't be as nice and realized by those people.
What are the biggest challenges that you think can be solved on the generation that you would
want, that you would want to be solved?
Okay.
Well, obviously if you look outside and you see the haze, climate change is I think a
huge thing that is going to, I don't, you know, I think that's going to be up to your
generation and hopefully it's not too late because they're saying that the reason why
we're having as many wildfires and as intense and long lasting as they are is because of
climate change.
Yeah, I think we have like a little nick of time left to fix it.
But then if we don't, we're kind of doing, I feel like a lot of people are just not taking
enough action.
Yeah, I agree.
I agree.
And the other thing I would say is that your generation is going to have to solve as the
problem that this country has with guns.
Oh yeah, no kidding.
Like Tijuana, like it's so dangerous according to like murder rates.
Yeah.
And like, I mean, I don't know, just in recent years, like school shootings has climbed up.
Oh yeah, that was making me angry.
Just like the amount of like, just violence has climbed up.
You know, it used to be like nobody even like knew, like there weren't school shootings.
Yeah.
And now it's like, oh, there was another one.
Yeah.
And it's kind of just like, it's sad that it's becoming more like that.
It's a regular, like a thing on a regular basis.
Oh yeah, another one happened.
That's sad.
Instead of like, oh my God.
But it's just really sad that that's starting to become normality.
And just with a bunch of other stuff, it's kind of sad that that's starting to become
like just more of a regular thing, like something we all know.
And that's like.
And maybe because you have lived through when it became a regular thing, maybe it will be
your generation that solves the problem.
Yeah, because like I know a lot of that stuff started happening like the mid 2010s, early
2010s.
Like I think it like started skyrocketing like after around like the Sandy Hook incident.
And I know New York City, I used to live there.
And like there were not like, I lived there until like 2020.
But like in more like before 2020 and like, I don't know, probably just like, let's just
say like 2011, 2010 to like 2016, 2017.
Like there wasn't much violence.
But if you look on the news now, there's so many things about like, I know in my subway
station, like the one that I used to go to, someone got killed.
Someone got shot in the elevator.
And someone gets choked.
So like just stuff is not like, it's just becoming more of a normal thing.
But I think it just shouldn't be that way.
We need to do something to stop it.
But once again, for a lot of the stuff, people are not taking enough action.
Like the governor, he said that there's a problem with like mental health of like Texas.
And some people also think that like that the people are getting way too many access
to guns and you should stop using guns.
Yeah.
And I know some laws are starting to help that.
But then it's not enough as a force as to just completely stop it in its tracks.
And if someone wants to follow in your footsteps as like a librarian in your careers,
what would you tell him or her like youth services?
Okay.
So the first thing I would tell them is that they have to be prepared to go to school
for two years after college to get their master's in library science.
Because that's a requirement.
And the other thing I would say is that especially if it's somebody your age, I would say from
now until you get to that point, get as much experience in different libraries as you can.
So you can volunteer at libraries when you're older.
You can work part time in libraries.
But I would have I would say work in different libraries because I figured out that I wanted
to be a public librarian because I was working in a public library in the school library.
And if I hadn't had that experience, I might have become a school librarian and traumatized
countless children before I realized that was not where I was meant to be.
So I and there are so many different kinds of libraries.
There's academic libraries, there's law libraries, there's medical libraries, there's music libraries.
So if you get experience in different libraries before you start library school,
then you'll know what you want to specialize in when you're in library school and you'll be that much more qualified when you get your degree.
Yeah, that's something like I know a lot of people like just like you should do if you feel passionate about a job,
which I know you wanted to go to law school before.
But like it's just in general, like doesn't matter how well do I feel passionate about a job.
Like you should probably like learn the ways first or just want to do a job that you're like you've got to learn it first and start to go into that experience.
And I like your message a lot. Yes, like saying, do you have a job that you actually like and you think is worth your time, even if it doesn't pay as much, even if it doesn't qualify you as much.
At least you're not waking up miserable that you have to go to work every day.
Yes, like I'm like I have a passion that I want to be a business tycoon.
I don't like it, but I want to be a business tycoon even though maybe going to meet my passion.
Like it's kind of like you. I may become like a doctor when I go instead.
Like also like you, like before you got your degree, you're a lawyer, but instead you became a librarian.
Yeah, stuff can change. One little thing can change your opinion about how you think about like how you look at the world, how you look at a job, or how you even look at a person.
But what is your life advice for kids listening to this podcast?
It actually plays on what you two both have been talking about, and that is, find something that you're passionate about and make sure you pursue it. Now it could be something that you pursue in your job, or you might have a job that you enjoy or is just okay, but you're making great money and you know you need to pay the bills.
But there can be another part of your life where you can follow that passion. So I think that's really important. And the other thing is that while you're following that passion, you need to make sure that you are kind to everyone around you, including yourself.