How could you not love libraries? Shelves filled with books, quiet corners for reading, and the smell of old paper. For Rachelle (Poppema ’14) Waldon, M.L.I.S., Access Services Librarian at North Central University, it was this love of libraries that led her back to NCU after working in the private sector for a number of years. “The library in my rural hometown was my happy place,” Waldon reflected. “My favorite book as a child was called ‘Molly at the Library.’ I was literally reading books about a girl going to the library. That’s how much I loved it.”
As an undergraduate at North Central University, Waldon studied English Literature. Her love of books made literature a logical choice. Her first college English class was studying the writings of C.S. Lewis, taught by Professor Emerita Carolyn Tennant, Ph.D. “I remember sitting in class the first day feeling like maybe I bit off more than I could chew,” Waldon recalled. “But that class was a really special class to me and set me on my course to becoming an English major.” Waldon was advised by Desirée Libengood, Ed.D., who is now Associate Vice President of Academic Affairs and Dean of the Colleg of Arts and Sciences, and thrived in the community of English majors—”a unique community of scholars, thinkers, and writers.”
Exploring career options
After completing her degree in 2014, Waldon worked for a year at North Central in the campus store then eventually found her way into the human services field. The jobs she had aligned with her skills and things she cared about but she had concerns about the high emotional demands of frontline human services work and the path to further advancement. “I started to think that either I need to further my education in this field,” Waldon explained, “pursuing social work or public health, or I need to figure out if it’s a good time for a career change.”
Waldon took a year to explore options and found her love of books, libraries, literature, and serving people drew her to librarianship. She enrolled in the Master of Library and Information Science program at St. Catherine University, took a job that was less demanding to accommodate her studies, and rolled up her sleeves to learn. “My program helped shape my understanding of the field as a whole,” Waldon said. “The library has such a role to play in providing equitable services and access to information; a library is one of the only places in our society that you can just go there and be there for free.”
Through the course of her studies, Waldon was attracted to library work in the higher education setting. As she was finishing her program, she learned about an opening at North Central University’s T.J. Jones Library and the work being done by the new head librarian Judy Pruitt, M.A., who was bringing a fresh, new direction for the library and how it served the NCU community.
“I knew I wanted to be part of that and to be able to put the things that I was learning theoretically in the classroom into practice,” Waldon said. She was hired while still in her master’s program and at the end of her time had the opportunity to stay on as a full librarian. On Feb. 1, her role will transition to Instruction and Electronic Services Librarian.
Updates for a unique library space
Beyond her love of library work, Waldon loves working in the context of the beautiful, unique T.J. Jones facility. The building opened in 1914 as the Tourtellotte Memorial Deaconess Home. It provided housing for the deaconesses and nurses who served Asbury Hospital. The building was built with great care and has the air of a stately mansion. Its charm has captured the hearts of North Central students since the school acquired it in 1968 and converted it to a library facility in the early 1970s. But from a librarian’s point of view, “T.J.” has a few challenges.
Waldon is excited that this spring, North Central’s annual Give Day campaign will address some of the weaknesses the building displays as a library by raising funds to renovate the entire second floor. “T.J. Jones is so loved,” Waldon said, “regardless of its quirks. It holds a special place in students’ and alumni’s hearts.
“The project will help upgrade the building to meet the needs of our students for academic study spaces and ease of use,” Waldon said. “It’s exciting to me to improve the functional aspects and also bring back more of the historical, beautiful elements that got covered up on the second floor.”
Waldon has found her true passion and love is to help others learn, grow, and thrive by connecting them with the resources they need. From her “happy place” in a one-room, small-town library to the elegance and “quirks” of the T.J. Jones Library, Waldon has found a perfect place—and she can’t wait for a “new and improved” library with the help of the extended North Central community on Give Day, March 10–11.
More information about Give Day and the T.J. Jones Library renovation project coming soon at giveday.northcentral.edu.
