A librarian on the move
Erica Ross doesn’t sit down to read books, but that doesn’t hinder her love for the Bethel Library.
By Lindsey Micucci
Sitting under clouds of cotton and a paper-crafted hot air balloon hanging from the ceiling of her office behind the Bethel library circulation desk, Erica Ross starts each day going through piles of library requests from faculty and students.
Ross isn’t used to people asking her what her favorite book is. She isn’t one for classic literature, nor is she one to read a book in a traditional way.
“Books are romantic to me,” she says. “I love the way they look and I love the smell, but for me what I love about the library is the people.”
Ross, 29, started working in the Bethel Library in 2007 as a student worker while she majored in psychology. During her sophomore year, she decided that becoming a librarian was what she wanted to pursue as a career.
“Not necessarily because of the books, which a lot of people do love,” she explains, “but because of the people and that everyone’s mission in the library is to learn and to discover.”
Ross, overseeing the main library and the seminary library, also manages 35 student workers this year. She cannot sound more fulfilled when she says that her student workers are the best part of her job.
“Erica is one of the most inviting managers I’ve ever worked for.” — Zach Port, senior philosophy major
Ross lives to make a difference in people’s lives on the personal scale. “I’ve had conversations with people in my life that were totally, ‘That was the moment that things changed for me!’ and I want to be able to have the same effect on people in that way,” Ross says. “That’s the way I want to change people’s lives, by encouraging through conversations.”
Her efforts to establish relationships with student workers have resonated with many.
“Erica is one of the most inviting managers I’ve ever worked for,” says Zach Port, a senior. “I’ll always remember what a simultaneously conducive and productive meeting environment she makes, so much that the library work crew has felt like a family all four years.”
Ross, an advocate for mental health awareness, has battled anxiety and depression after graduating from “The Bethel bubble.” After seeking help from her doctor and support from her family, she has found her “true authentic self” and hopes to give guidance to those leaving “The Bethel bubble” this May as she has sought to do every year with students flying from under her wing.
One thing that she shares with her students is: “Go easy on yourself. If you don’t like how things are going you have the full power to change that.”
Ross loves working with this age group because she can share those experiences and pieces of advice that she wished someone had told her before she had graduated. One thing that she shares with her students is: “Go easy on yourself. If you don’t like how things are going you have the full power to change that.”
The Bethel Library helps Ross reach her goal of empowering others by creating spaces for those conversations to flow. The library staff takes a lot of pride in the student workers and has been “100% supportive of them.”
“She has built a strong community amongst her student workers and I think that has a domino effect on the entire library,” says Kaylin Creason, the Acquisitions and Interlibrary Loan supervisor, who calls Ross a co-worker and a friend.
While Ross isn’t one to sit still with a book in her hand, she shares her love for listening to audiobooks while pursuing her passion for embroidery. Due to an always-running-mind, she has found that it is good for her to be moving even in the smallest motion of a needle and thread.
And for the four years that she has with her student workers or however the amount of time she gets with them, Ross will always be on the move, to empower and invest, to laugh and to share honest conversations before her time runs out with her students.
