Send Email to Sybilla at: SYBILLA@ROSENET.NET
Authors Among Us - Children's Writers Who Are or Who Have Been Librarians
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Sybilla
A. Cook Send Email to Sybilla at: SYBILLA@ROSENET.NET |
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Authors Among Us - Children's Writers Who Are or Who Have Been Librarians
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Featured Title by Oregon Author
Sybilla A. Cook
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Battle of the Books and More
by Sybilla Cook, Frances Corcoran and Beverley Fonnesbeck Highsmith Press; ISBN: 1579500471 March 2001 |
| To find out more about Sybilla's books and other publications, click here. | |
| What influenced you to become a librarian, or
to work in a library?
I was working as a parent volunteer in my local school library and read an article in This Week magazine (a newspaper supplement of the time) about the need for trained school librarians. I wrote to the American Library Association (listed in the article) and was amazed to receive a phone call from librarian Sarah Reed -- a real person who encouraged me to go back to school and get my degree. Do you have a library/information science degree? I went to Rosary College (now Dominican University) to get my MALS. On moving to Oregon I found I had to take more education courses, so I also went on for a masters in curriculum from the University of Oregon. What kinds of library positions have you held and where? Volunteer at Kildeer Countryside School, Long Grove, Illinois How long were you, or have you been, a librarian? Officially: 28 years. Which came first in your life, your career as a librarian, or writing for children and adults who work with children? Hard to answer. I've always written in my spare time (?) but I think my career as a librarian preceded any serious efforts to write. Did your library work have anything to do with becoming a children's writer? Of course. How did your library work directly influence your work as an author? I knew I could write better stuff than some of what was being published. Did you respond to interactions with students and their families? My first (as yet unpublished) children's book came directly from a sixth grader who wanted a book on Sasquatch written for girls. Did librarianship increase your knowledge of children's literature and influence the kinds of things you chose to write? Yes Did incidents from your library work ever
make it into your books? No What were the greatest benefits of being a librarian to you as a writer? I learned how to research and how to network with others. The only way I could have accepted the project of writing a guidebook to Portland (Walking Portland, Falcon Publishing, 1998) was because I know how to research the background and contact other people in the area before I started walking the city myself. (I have never lived in Portland.) Were there any drawbacks to being a librarian and also a writer? No Did you find any conflicts or job-related
difficulties in being both a writer and a librarian?
I'm afraid my administration didn't give a hoot about any of the stuff I wrote. I never got any pats on the back or public acknowledgment, though the principal always had kind words. Do you feel that librarianship had specific benefits to you as a writer? How to research and how to network with others. Click here to find out more about Sybilla Cook's published writing. |
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Last Updated October 31, 2003