Librarians are beloved for the way they spread wonder along with curiosity through education and knowledge in the lives of adolescents. It’s a widely respected profession that caters toward any interest; each day is spent serving the community.

“There isn’t really a typical day at the library,” Claudia Wayland, Youth Services Manager of Allen Public Library said. “Part of the day is spent, for me, managing and making sure our scheduling is set for the upcoming days and weeks, answering patron questions like through email and phone and then also planning for projects in the future like our summer reading club and things like that.”

At the library, the days don’t blur together. With this job the work day differs, and not everything they do is recognized.

“It’s a lot of behind the scenes work that goes into planning everything that we have going on, especially with summer coming up,” Rebekah Tissell, Youth Services Librarian of Allen Public Library said. “Right now we’re in a planning phase, getting ready for summer and all the craziness that will bring.”

Summertime can be a busy season for the library. It’s where a lot of programs begin to pick up.

“Our busiest time of year is the summertime, when the schools are out, so we have to make sure that all of our performers that we book are actually gonna show up,” Wayland said. “We have to make sure that the reading logs, where kids sign up to read books and then they get prizes are all ready to go.”

The library is known for their variety of programs and opportunities. Some of their more popular attractions are 1,000 Books Before Kindergarten, Teen Anime Night, Story Time and Baby and Me.

“I think the most important [program] that we offer is probably the Baby and Me because we’re talking to new parents who have this baby that has so many opportunities and so many things they could be doing with a baby like reading every night, talking to the baby, increasing their vocabulary,” Wayland said. “And we can give the parents tips and model how to interact with a baby.”

Story Time is a fairly favored program at the library. It introduces kids to the joy of reading and inspires imagination.

“It’s really funny what kids feel like they need to contribute in the middle of Story Time,” Wayland said. “One time I was reading a book about noses and one of the kids said, ‘My mom just got her nose done,’ and the mom was sitting in the back going, ‘Oh my God.’”

This library has more of a community center type ambience, especially in the cyber era.   Libraries have gone through major renovations, it’s not the strict, quiet, empty, desert stereotype that you may picture in your head.

“Whenever I say I’m a librarian you either get, ‘Oh, I like to read,’ or ‘Man, it must be really quiet in the library’, and people who come to the library know that it’s not a quiet place,” Wayland said. “We don’t shh people, we don’t wear buns anymore. A lot of us do wear glasses but it’s not because we’re librarians.”

As you can tell, the library has steered away from this false stigma. This bookkeeping metamorphose has opened the doors to new exciting opportunities, that welcome all ages, and with that comes different genres of crazy occurrences.

“You never know what people are gonna use as a bookmark; I found an actual piece of bacon one time,” Wayland said. “Sometimes people will read where they shouldn’t be so you’ll see like a [piece of] toilet paper or things like that.”

One thing for sure is you never know what you may find in a returned book. Strange and peculiar happenings aren’t rare to the librarians.

“I found a dead lizard once; that was interesting,” Tissell said. “Someone had smashed it in between the book pages. Needless to say that book no longer exists in this library.”

The Allen Public Library is public which means anybody has access to books, and anything can happen. But, regardless, the library is still an enchanting spot to work because anything can happen.

“It’s pretty much the perfect job,” Wayland said. “You go into this career because you want to help people and make a difference in the community.”

The library is a place where most children grow up, teens volunteer and adults treasure. It’s a shared place where everyone is invited to come and marvel at the joy of reading.

“I like working with kids a lot,” Wayland said. “I like making people happy and smiley, so when I can make a child smile that’s a really great feeling.”