The new branch manager for the Estevan Public Library has enjoyed his experience in this city thus far.
Lucas Reid started working at the library last week. He has been impressed with the quality and quantity of programming offered by the library for children and adults alike.
鈥淚鈥檓 really impressed with what they manage to pull off here,鈥� Reid told the Mercury.
The library has some great staff members in place, and he is pleased with the building they work out of.
鈥淭he collection is impressive as well,鈥� said Reid. 鈥淚 come from an academic library background. I worked at the Memorial University鈥檚 library in St. John鈥檚 before I moved here, and it鈥檚 a way different library environment.
鈥淚鈥檓 really excited to make the transition into a public library, because the collection is a lot different, the patron base is different. I really enjoy it. It鈥檚 actually a lot more exciting than a university library is a lot of the time.鈥�
Reid has found the community to be really welcoming, and everyone he has talked to has been friendly.
鈥淚鈥檓 feeling my way around, trying to locate where everything is,鈥� said Reid.
Reid鈥檚 career in libraries started as a part-time student assistant at the Queen Elizabeth II Library at Memorial University in 2009. He worked at the library throughout his undergraduate studies in history. After he finished his studies, he did a master鈥檚 degree in history as well.
Once his studies were complete, he secured a full-time position as a library assistant in a contracted role.
鈥淭hen I decided I wanted to really try to progress in the library world 鈥� so that necessitated getting an MLIS, a master of library and information science, so I moved to London, Ontario, where I went to the University of Western Ontario for their one-year program,鈥� said Reid.
He finished his studies in 2017, and returned to work at Memorial University before making the move to Estevan as the branch manager.
鈥淎fter doing the master鈥檚 of library science, I knew I wanted to progress in the job environment,鈥� said Reid. 鈥淭here weren鈥檛 many opportunities in Newfoundland, obviously, for librarianship, so I applied to a few places in the rest of Canada.鈥�
He believes his experience is his biggest asset, because he started at an entry level position and worked his way up. While it was a university library, he believes there is a lot of overlap between the two types of libraries.
Reid says he has always enjoyed dealing with patrons and having the face-to-face interaction with the public. Since going to library school, he has found he enjoys meeting the information needs of patrons on a higher level and answering questions.
Now that he has moved into a management position, Reid is looking forward to duties associated with his role, such as collection development, scheduling and seeing the direction the library can take while engaging with the public.
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