Staff Profile - May 2016

Cheryl Callavini, Southeast Branch's YS Librarian III, has served in several positions and locations with JPL.  

Where best to share your love of reading, story telling, and a desire to enrich people's lives than as a librarian. Cheryl has served her family, JPL, and its customers for almost three decades and is now ready to expand her life in new ways when she retires soon.  We will miss her and hope she checks in with us occasionally after she checks out of JPL. 

Q: You have 37 years with JPL. What motivated you for so long?

A:  Every day I learn something new, whether researching a question for a customer, or in training to keep up with all the libraries' great new services.  

Q:  What professional attributes helped you the most along your career path?

A:  My Love of reading and literature and wanting to impart that passion to our customers, through storytimes and finding just the right book for the avid reader as well as the reluctant reader.

I also love the detective work in finding the answer to a customer’s question through the reference interview process and the research using our databases and other multiple sources.

I once helped a customer who was adopted find her birth parents in Germany.  She visited them in Germany and returned to show me the write up in a German magazine giving the library credit in the help of her search. I felt a sense of accomplishment and a feeling of rightness about the profession I had chosen.

Q: In what capacities have you served JPL and what have you learned from your experience?

A:  I have worked as a reference librarian, branch manager, children’s librarian, branch manager again and finally as a Youth Services Librarian III.  

I enjoy that moment when the light bulb goes on and you know the child gets the answer he has asked you to help him find. I have learned how rewarding it is to reassure a parent who is looking for help with a problem their child has, when you can share information to guide them through this stage of development.

Q:  Do you have some suggestions for new librarians?

A:  Each day you arrive at work is a fresh new start. Mistakes made previously can be looked at as stepping stones to your learning experience. Find the joy in each day. I try and live by Mother Theresa’s quote, “We ourselves feel that what we are doing is just a drop in the ocean. But the ocean would be less because of that missing drop”.

Q:  What are some future plans you would share with us?  

A:  Travel, Travel, Travel.  Working and raising a family has kept me grounded; now I am ready to fly.  I have a list of places to visit this year, including a Mediterranean cruise (a graduation gift for my niece), Hawaii, and enjoying a New England fall. Next year, I am open to suggestions.