Interview with Technical Services Librarian Becky Givens

Becky Givens is a Technical Services Librarian with a non-traditional career path. Becky found her calling late in life and enrolled in an LMIS program at 50 years old. She has since established herself as a seminary librarian and is featured in Priscilla K. Shontz’ forthcoming book, Careers in Library and Information Services, which includes a section on careers in special libraries where librarians describe the work they do in various settings.

My interview with Becky is below.

Please introduce yourself and describe your job.

I am Becky Givens, and I am Technical Services Librarian at Covenant Theological Seminary, in St. Louis, Missouri. I am responsible for all original and copy cataloging, including print and electronic resources. Since we are a small library, there are times when I also help with the front desk.

How did you end up in this role?

This is a great story. Ten years ago, at the age of 50, I found myself in need of a job with a future to support myself. One of my part time jobs was in a used bookstore, which I loved, but I knew I didn’t want to work in retail management.

I had always loved books and libraries, and also had a desire to go back to school, so I began to investigate librarianship and ultimately enrolled in the online MLIS program at the University of Alabama. We had a required in-person orientation, and I remember sitting on the bus going from our hotel to campus when it suddenly occurred to me that seminaries have libraries, and therefore they must have librarians… how cool would that be to work in a seminary library?! I was very active in my church and loved the study of theology.

During my first semester, I took Introduction to Libraries, and one of our assignments was to gather librarian job descriptions and describe our own dream job. I wasn’t finding much for Theological Librarians in the job ads, so I sent emails to as many seminary library directors as I could find email addresses for. The first response I got back was from the director at Covenant, and he sent me the job descriptions for all his librarian positions. That started an email conversation that continued through graduate school and beyond, and ultimately ended with an interview and job offer. Through our conversations and a cataloging assignment in my other first semester class (Organization of Information), I discovered I enjoy cataloging, and when his cataloger retired, he called me. Thus, the dream job I described in that assignment is the job I ended up getting.

What knowledge and skills are particularly useful in your job?

A theological librarian, as in any other kind of special library, needs knowledge of institutional subject matter. Sometimes this means another degree or further training in the specialty subject. When I was hired, there was an expectation that I would pursue a theological education here at the seminary.

I earned a Theological Studies certificate (which included a year each of Greek and Hebrew), and I still audit classes to further my education. I consider this education to be a perquisite of my job because I love the subject matter. I have found a specialty library is a particularly great place for a cataloger with specialty knowledge. These institutions value quality cataloging, and they know only someone with a solid foundation in the subject can do it. I also participate in NACO, creating authorized names for religious authors.

What knowledge and skills do you think seminary librarians will need in the future?

In a seminary we serve a very diverse student population:

• Diverse in age with older students returning to school as well as young people just out of college.
• Diverse in culture with a number of international students and students of all different backgrounds.
• Diverse in both on-campus and online students

Communication and the ability to serve and instruct each of these categories of students is something we work on constantly. Each group has specific needs and struggles in their studies. Consider also our work with faculty, as we come alongside them as teachers and provide resources for their own studies, resulting in the need to evaluate library instruction and resources regularly.

Catalogers also need more knowledge of the systems as well as the subjects. Our consortium recently migrated from Sierra to Folio, and having at least a basic understanding of how coding works is helpful. In addition, the increasing quantity of e-resources requires staying up to date with the management of those resources, and knowing how to navigate the various platforms. AI brings a new tool we need to contemplate. And, there are always changes to how we describe resources and how that displays for our patrons.

For others interested in working in a seminary library, what advice do you have?

Make connections! It is hard for us introverts, but you already have a point in common … your desire to work in a seminary library. Pursue theological education; it doesn’t have to be for credit. Join a theological library organization. Atla is a broad religious library association, and there are other more specific organizations like ACL (Association of Christian Librarians). I know there are both Catholic and Jewish library organizations, too, and I am sure there are organizations for other faith traditions.

Is there anything else you would like to share?

When I was in library school, I had no actual library experience. There was a small Bible College in town, so I began volunteering there. The director became a good friend and mentor, and wrote a glowing recommendation for me when I applied for a part-time public library job shelving books that summer, and later when I applied for a paid part-time internship at a local college. I also worked an unpaid internship in the special collections of a large Christian university.

The contacts I made and the things I learned in each of these part-time jobs were what led to a full-time assistant cataloging job at that same Christian university, which is what trained me so perfectly for my present job in a seminary. The library community is typically happy to help library students, but you have to look for the opportunities and keep searching and applying, while doing whatever you can to build your resume. Jobs do not drop in your lap; you have to spend a lot of time and energy looking and preparing for them.