Librarian Spotlight presents… Melissa Jensen!

This week, I’m delighted to welcome another lovely librarian to the Librarian Spotlight series. I love getting to know really fab teen librarians (and teachers too!) who are as passionate about YA and middle grades fiction as we are. Today, I’m pleased to welcome…

Melissa Jensen
Platte Valley Youth Service Center Library

As always, Friday guests will be sharing their You 2.0 stories about pursuing their dreams, changing their world, gratitude, and paying it forward. Then they’ll be talking about why they love the YA and middle grades genres and why they love being an author, librarian, or teacher. And good news… Three Truths and a Lie is alive and well on Fridays too!

The Basics

Name:  

Melissa Jensen

Library:  

Platte Valley Youth Service Center Library

Location:

Greeley, CO

A Bit About the Library:

We are a small on grounds library at a youth detention and commitment facility, serving around 150 residents ages 10-20.

Short Bio:

I’ve been the librarian here for almost two years and have made many changes in that time to change the way that residents think about the library and reading. We have three afterschool meetings every week to give residents a place to talk about what they are reading and writing. These meetings are one of my favorite parts of being a librarian.

(P.S. from Kay: This picture was taken at a local art show where Melissa read several of her students’ poems. Is that awesome or what?)


Questions About You 2.0

The You 2.0 blog is about becoming everything you’re meant to be. It’s about pursuing your dreams, changing your world, showing gratitude, and paying it forward. Here’s a chance for our Spotlight guests to share what You 2.0 means to them.

1.   PURSUING YOUR DREAMS: Everyone has the ability to be extraordinary, they just have to embrace what makes them unique and special and pursue their dreams with passion and confidence! Tell us a little about a dream you’ve achieved or are pursuing right now. If you’ve achieved it already, how does it feel to know you’ve made your dream a reality?

Even when I was a little girl, I wanted to go to Peru. I was drawn there, but I didn’t know how to go. I learned Spanish and read a lot of Peruvian literature and history. I worked to save money to go one day. I talked about it with a lot of people. One day, after many years, I got lucky. One of my husband’s relatives heard me talking and told me his sister was going the next year. I was able to connect with her and she told me I could go with her. I had to work even harder to pay for the plane ticket, but we were able to stay with some of her friends in the countryside. While we were there we drove to many places to help the people in the community. It was very wonderful and rewarding. For a while I thought I would move there and work at one of the country schools. I ended up becoming a librarian here in the States instead, but I would love to go back one day.

2.   CHANGING YOUR WORLD: Changing the world doesn’t have to mean finding a cure for cancer or creating lasting world peace (though it definitely can!). It just means finding a way that you can make the world a little better off for having lived here, whether it’s making a difference to one person or a million, to the earth, to animals… whatever is important to you. What is one way you would personally like to make the world a better place?

I really think the work I am doing here at the jail is making a big difference. A lot of the young people I work with start out not knowing how to read or just not liking it. I know that one right book can make a big difference, though. By the time they leave, many of the residents have come to love reading, and can’t stop talking about the books they are reading and what they think about them. When they leave here, every resident goes out into their community, and they have the chance to change those worlds too by showing their family and their peers the power of reading.

3.   GRATITUDE: Gratitude is a huge part of the You 2.0 life. Taking a moment to count our blessings is the best way to remember what’s truly important (especially when life is hectic and crazy!). What are you grateful for?

I am really grateful for my husband and our English Angora rabbit. They make my home a safe, relaxing place to come home to after a hard day. I am also grateful for homemade ice cream and macaroni and cheese. I am a big fan of food! And I am grateful for my memories: they help me to make better decisions and remind me of how far I’ve come.

4.   PAYING IT FORWARD: If everyone took a moment to pay it forward, even just once, the world would be changed in ways we can’t even imagine. What is one thing you’ve done (or plan to do) to “pay it forward” in some way?

I love to share books, leave books in public places, give books away to best friends or complete strangers.


Questions About You, The Librarian

5.   Why did you decide to participate in The Great Scavenger Hunt Contest?

I am the librarian at a small juvenile detention and commitment center. We have a small budget but a big reading population. Plus, the Great Scavenger Hunt Contest is a great way to answer the ever present question “Miss, what should I read next?”

6.   Do you think you would’ve participated in the contest as a teen/tween?

Probably. I loved reading and I was very lucky as a teen.

7.   Tell us about some cool teen programming your library has hosted. We love to hear new ideas!

This past year I created and got grant funding for two big programs at my youth detention facility. The first, Writing for Change, is a poetry and writing group. A lot of our kids are writers, most everyone keeps journals as part of their treatment here, and this is a great place for them to share and revise safely. The other is Reading for Change, which is basically a book club, but is unique because the residents get to keep the books we read together. This element is huge since most of them have very limited personal property while there are here, if they have any at all. The even cooler thing about Reading for Change is that often participants then turn around and share their books with other residents after we have finished. It has been a great program for these kids.

8.   Why did you choose a book-related career?

This particular position found me (and I am so happy it did!) but I always wanted to do something with books. Write them, sell them, share them, study them . . .

9.   What do you love most (and least) about being a librarian?

I love being able to read while I’m at work (only when it’s not too busy), and I love helping young people discover “the” perfect book that opens up so many things to them. My least favorite part is having to budget for everything that I do. Why can’t I do everything? Sigh.

10.   What books influenced you as a teen/tween?

My senior year of high school I read The English Patient for school, and it changed my life. It showed me that I could combine my interests in history and literature, and ultimately led to my studying the effects of colonialism on literature in college.

11.   What do you love most about the YA and middle grades genres?

Even as a teen, I rarely read “YA” books until I became a youth librarian. Now I read them all the time. I love the diversity in YA books, and the ways that they take complex issues and say “you don’t have to understand everything about this. Let’s just look at this one piece and really try to learn something about it.”

12.   Are you also a writer yourself? If so, what do you like to write?

Like a lot of people who work with books, I also write now and again, mostly short stories and poetry.

13.   If you could go back in time and give your teen/tween self one piece of advice, what would it be?

Don’t be afraid to do the things you want to do. All those people at school whose opinions are so important right now? You won’t even remember their names in five years. Be who you are now, so you don’t lose yourself later.


Will the Real You 2.0 Please Stand Up?

14.   I love the game Three Truths and a Lie because there are so many unexpected and interesting things about people that we never get a chance to learn about them. What are three truths and a lie that our blog readers can guess about you?

– In junior high and high school, I spent part of each year in China.
– I got married to my high school sweetheart when I was 20.
– After I graduated from college, I taught English at a school abroad for a year.  <--UPDATE: That was the lie!
– When I was a little girl, I wanted more than anything to live out of a suitcase and be a political speechwriter.

(Readers: Your guess gets you an entry into the You 2.0 monthly contest for an ARC of The Cinderella Society or a prize dive in the awesome You 2.0 Prize Basket. Guess correctly and you get a bonus entry. Plus, you never know when the next impromptu Bundle o’ Bookmarks giveaway will be for one recent commenter. Will it be you? I’ll update the post later to spill the big lie, so get guessing and have fun!)

Thanks to Melissa for a terrific interview!

Entry Filed under: Librarian Spotlight