This blog post is authored by Niki G. a member of the Biblio Lotus Team.
Wonderful Weirdos Day is observed annually on September 9, but let’s celebrate being weird every day! Merriam Webster’s dictionary defines “weird” as “of strange or extraordinary character: odd, fantastic”.
Growing up, I struggled to find a place to belong. I am a Korean American adoptee who didn’t look like anyone else in school and hung out with art and band kids. I cut my hair short, with asymmetric bangs, wore my dad’s work shirts with neck ties or bowties, and my best friend in middle school told me I was too weird to keep hanging out with. My mother wanted a “normal” daughter who liked shopping and pastel colors, but blacks and grays were staples in my wardrobe, and I hated shopping!
I played adult co-ed softball, despite being a non-athletic book nerd and I gravitated towards dystopian horror but also loved silly movies that catered to a teenage boy’s sense of humor. When I lived in Tennessee, my coworkers thought my vegetarian diet was weird and thought it was hilarious when I did the Walk for Farm Animals to raise funds for Farm Sanctuary.
I'll admit—we were a funny sight to behold, holding signs depicting animal cruelty while marching up and down West End in Nashville, Tennessee, in front of Vanderbilt tailgaters who were grilling meat and heckling us.
Prior to working at the library, I worked in different corporate and non-profit office environments and felt like something was missing. I felt unfulfilled. During the early days of COVID-19, I checked out the library book Weird in a World That's Not and it inspired me to look for a workplace that would combine my passions: My love of all things bookish, my desire to be in a helping role, someplace where I could make a positive impact on the community, and work with others whose goals aligned with mine. The library seemed to check all the boxes! One of my first jobs as a teenager was working as a page in the Rochester Hills Public Library and I loved it! I entered a Master of Library and Information Science program in the summer of 2020 and was fortunate to get a job working at my local Pima County branch in the summer of 2022.
There is something for almost every interest or passion for staff who work at Pima County Public Library! Our affinity teams include Kindred, Many Nations, Nuestras Raíces, Pride, Synapse, Welcome to America, and the Seed Library. I’m a member of our Biblio Lotus team, which supports the culture and voice of Asian communities. If you’re into manga and anime, the library plans a yearly MegaMania event. If you love arts or are crafty, staff create fun and whimsical displays and flyers and some staff also coordinate artist exhibits for their library branch gallery space. If you love bicycling, the library has Bookbikes! If you are bookish and love recommending books, we have a Ravenous Readers team—the bibliophiles behind the Personalized Reading Recommendation personas.
Seeing patrons get satisfaction from checking out books from an eye-catching display, enjoying themselves at MegaMania, having books pedaled to them, asking for a title that they spent years searching for, enjoying a local author talk—these are the by-products of doing what we love. Weirdness fuels our passions!
The library is one of the most accepting places where I have worked. I have encountered some of the nicest, most unique colleagues and have had the most fun working here. Whether a patron or staff, you will find the folks who accept you as you are. To me, this is why the library is such a wonderful place for people who consider themselves different, neuro-divergent, left of center, or who feel like a square in a round hole. At the library, you can be whatever shape you want, even a squiggle or a tetrahedron! Whoever you are, you are welcome at the library!
