Please join us in welcoming Taylor Parks, our new cataloging library assistant at the William H. Hannon Library. Taylor will be assisting the cataloging department with ensuring our collections are accurately represented and discoverable in the library catalog.
Taylor is a graduate of Illinois State University, and has an M.L.I.S. from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She has previously worked as a library assistant at Heartland Community College Library, the University of Illinois at Chicago’s Urbana Campus, and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. We recently caught up with Taylor to ask her a few “getting-to-know-you” questions.
What drew you to the world of libraries?
“Libraries have always been my happy place, and since my first library job in a community college I’ve loved helping other people access the information they’re seeking. There was never really any chance of me going for something like corporate life after seeing the rad librarians helping people with their work there.”
What about this new role are you most excited about?
“I’ve been working on contract in this department for a while already and am very excited to get to keep working with the wonderful people I’ve met here!”
What is the last show you watched or book you read? Would you recommend it to others?
“I just finished reading The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson, and I’m watching “The Good Place.” The first is an epic fantasy novel and the latter is a tv comedy, but they both are largely about the questions of what we owe each other and how to figure out a philosophy you can actually live with. I absolutely recommend them!”
What is something about you that we might be surprised to learn?
“I frequently lose the better part of a Saturday to nerdy board games. Right now I can’t stop playing Twilight Imperium and Nemesis. I like games where players with frequently competing interests have to figure out how to negotiate relationships and make decisions about whether to work together or battle it out. It doesn’t hurt if there’s aliens.”