I love the library, but it is possible the library doesn’t love me back.
Two weeks after I was hired to be the communications student for K-State Libraries, Hale Library caught on fire and was shut down for repairs for an indefinite amount of time.
I definitely expected to receive an email telling me that my position had been eliminated, but it never came. Instead, I started working on creating content for the K-State Libraries Twitter soon after the fire, which gave me the weird opportunity to make jokes and memes about something very serious that impacted the entire campus.
The communications department at K-State Libraries had already built a really nice following on social media, especially Twitter, so I was pretty nervous to post anything. Once I started posting, I realized how fun it was to make memes at work, especially at an account that came with a large following built-in. Don’t worry, I was promoting library resources, but I was also making jokes about how bad it sucked to be without a library. Essentially, I just cruised around Twitter until I found memes or formats that I liked, and then geared them towards library resources and locations. It felt very wholesome.
Now I work at Manhattan Public Library (follow us on Twitter @ManhattanPL!). The work here is very similar, just with more responsibilities. I love working at libraries, and working with social media has been really rewarding for me. I would encourage anyone with an interest in a creative position to consider looking for jobs in social media because it turned out to be a creative outlet that actually paid me and continues to do so!
— Brenna Leahy (BA ’19)
K-State English 