Working in a Special Library

Theresa Venable had been a school teacher for many years when she was approached by her principal about a program offering scholarships for the MLIS program at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, specifically for people from underrepresented populations. “I read over it and thought, ‘Oh, this sounds wonderful.’ So I applied to the program and was accepted,” she said.

Attending SIS Online in ‘99

It was the year the School of Information Sciences launched its program online for the first time, and Venable said it was a little intimidating but also helpful to have a crash course in online learning. She was still working full time as a sixth grade teacher while attending classes online and it was a hefty workload.

“Some people thought if it’s an online program it can’t be as effective as an in-person program. So we think maybe we got burdened with extra work because they were trying to prove that this program was just as effective and that people would be prepared,” she said. “I loved it because I didn’t have to drive to UT, park, grab something for dinner. I came home and got online. On the weekends I was in my pajamas!”

Not only did she love the online format, but she felt the program fully prepared her to be a librarian and it made her a more effective teacher. When the school district she taught at started deploying more online tools for teachers to use, some teachers actually retired early to avoid having to learn the technology. After completing an online program, Venable said she had no problem adjusting.

“Even now, because I was a little older than the average student, I am comfortable with doing things online that other people my age don’t feel comfortable doing. It prepared us for the age of the internet, this cyberworld that we live in,” she said.

She recalls that, at the time, students were put into groups that would then work together throughout the program. The five women in her group jokingly referred to themselves as the “Melting Pot” because they all came from different racial backgrounds. Though they haven’t kept in close touch over the years, Venable says she thinks about them often. Long hours of meeting on the online platform Blackboard to complete group projects definitely bonded them, and they remain a highlight of her memories of SIS.

Getting her master’s was a great challenge and took up almost all her extra time. Her husband made sure to cook for her to ensure she ate, and also supported her in many other ways. She had to hire someone to help grade her students’ papers. Every Friday she’d come home and get on her computer and start working, usually until about 2 a.m. into the next morning, before getting some sleep and starting it all over again on Saturday. She even hired a tutor to help her navigate HTML. But by the time she graduated, she felt confident she could do a variety of information sciences jobs.

“I felt so competent when I finished the program, and I still do,” she said.

The Child Defense Fund

Venable had been volunteering for the Children’s Defense Fund at the Alex Haley Farm in Clinton, Tennessee, assisting with some of the big events the organization held there during the summer. Alex Haley was a journalist and author, perhaps most well-known for penning the best-selling book Roots: The Saga of an American Family, based on an oral history of his own family. Upon his death, his farm in Clinton was sold to the CDF.

The CDF is a national non-profit organization that advocates for children, in particular “the needs of poor children, children of color and those with disabilities.” This is achieved through a variety of programs that promote civic engagement, social action, literacy, gun violence prevention, child health, and youth justice.

The Alex Haley Farm exists as the organization’s “home for spiritual renewal, character and leadership development, intergenerational mentoring, and interracial and interfaith dialogue about children’s issues.”

Just before she graduated, the librarian at the farm left and they started searching for a replacement. Venable counts herself as very fortunate for landing that job, as she was one of many applicants, but it proved to be a perfect fit. She was hired as an independent contractor in 2005 and then as a full-time employee in 2006, and remained there until her retirement in July 2022.

Working at the Farm

Venable wore many hats as librarian for the CDF. The collection at the farm was her responsibility, and it focuses primarily on books written by African-American authors and illustrators, as well as books about the Civil Rights Movement—particularly women who played roles in the movement. The library is non-circulating and doesn’t allow people to take the books off-premises, but the farm does have lodgings and visitors can check out books to read during their stay.

One of Venable’s main jobs was working with the Freedom Schools Committee to help them choose books for their kindergarten-12th grade curriculums. Freedom School teachers are either college students or recent college graduates, and tens of thousands of children have passed through the program since its inception in 1995.

“That’s our major community-based program and it’s a literacy-based program. The students enrolled in Freedom School sites all over the country are introduced to good books, and the purpose is not to try to teach them how to read but to have them fall in love with books, with literature,” she said.

Different sites often asked for Venable’s help to select books for specific purposes or particular age groups, and she purchased all the books for the program. Additionally, Venable ordered books for the Alex Haley Farm bookstore. Besides maintaining an ongoing selection, she also ensured relevant materials were available during events hosted at the farm. For example, if an author was speaking, Venable stocked the bookstore with their titles. Occasionally, speakers provided her with a list of books that would pair well with their topic, and she would purchase those for the store’s shelves.

She also did programming for groups of school-aged children who visited the farm, such as presentations on Langston Hughes, Alex Haley, and Zora Neale Hurston. But, as a former school teacher, Venable knows kids like to be on the move; one of her favorite ways to engage them was with a scavenger hunt that took them all over the farm, where they learned the history of Alex Haley and all about the CDF.

Though she retired in summer 2022, Venable said getting her degree from SIS and then the job at CDF was truly life-changing, if somewhat unplanned. If she could give any advice to those considering getting their degree from SIS, it would be this: “Be ready for any direction that your career path might take you; be ready to shift gears, and move with it.” •