This week we had the chance to sit down and talk with school librarians Mrs. Molly Dettmann and Mrs. Rachel Lester about their time at North so far, how they became librarians, and even about the time the Library was accidentally maced.

TR: So how long have you guys been librarians at Norman North? 

RL: This is my second year here at Norman North, as I started last year. 

MD: This is my fourth year. 

JS: What inspired you guys to become librarians?

RL: I started out in academic libraries at OU. And so it was my love of education and also just books and I worked with all the really old books, so I really love being around those. I’ve always loved libraries and it just seemed like a great fit for me. 

TR: Where does your love for libraries come from? Did you like reading as a kid? Did you hang out in the library a lot growing up? 

RL: Yes I was a library kid, I was always there. I remember when my dad was in grad school, I was maybe like three or four. We would go to the library at OU and I would pretend to check out books for him. So like it’s just been a thing that I’ve always done and always been around.

MD: And I have always been in libraries. And when I was in school, I’d always like to leave class early. So I’d go hang out in the library and check out books and stuff. And then when I worked out in public libraries first and I really liked working with teenagers, which I know is kind of shocking, because they are kind of a hot mess sometimes, but I love it. And so then I wanted to work in schools with teens more so that’s why I went to school libraries instead. 

TR: So what were you guys’ favorite books growing up? 

MD: I love the Goosebumps series and anything by RL Stine slabs.

RL: I read the entire Harry Potter series as many times as I possibly could. And the first book came out when I was like six and then the last one came out my senior year of high school so it was like literally the span of my childhood.

TM: How did you start to become a librarian?

MD: We have to have a master’s degree in Library Information Studies. There are definitely several programs where just specifically school libraries like UCO has one, but we both graduated from an accredited program [at OU]. So then we could be professional librarians in any capacity. And then we also are certified teachers. So we had to pass tests and take additional coursework because neither of our undergrads were [in] teaching. So then we had to do additional stuff to become alternatively certified to be teachers as well. 

JS: What are your career goals five to 10 years from now?

RL: I really just want to be doing the same thing that I’m doing. This is kind of like, this is the professional role I wanted to be in so I just want to keep doing it.

JS: What is your favorite memory so far? 

MD: Well, there was the time I inhaled mace during freshman like, my first year, it was the fall of 2018 never forget, I thought these kids were like choking and I was like oh, I have to guess I have to do the Heimlich and I walked over to them and one of them had accidentally like let loose a mace keychain spray that they had and I inhaled some of it and we had to close the library the rest of the day. And that was I just you know, I’ll never forget that.

RL: I have thankfully never had anything like that happen to me, but I don’t know. I mean, I don’t really like one in particular but just kind of all the different cool stuff that we do because we’re always we always have different things going on in here and it’s never boring.