As the new semester begins, you might find yourself in Elizabethtown College’s wonderful High Library. In the library, there are many dedicated individuals who make sure everything is taken care of. One of these individuals is Kyla Carpenter, a Circulation Desk Worker. Carpenter is a sophomore psychology major with a women and gender studies minor. After coming to Etown, she decided she really wanted to work at the library because of the work atmosphere.

“I really love the atmosphere. I thought shelving books and checking things out would be kind of fun since it’s not in as much of a customer service setting,” Carpenter said.

In the spring of 2022, Carpenter emailed one of the librarians at the High Library, Clarissa Grunwald, about when applications would be opened. Once they were, she excitedly applied.

“The interview process was really straightforward. Clarissa is really nice and so she made the process really stress-free,” Carpenter said.

As a Circulation Desk Worker, Carpenter has many different tasks that need to be completed throughout the week. Some of her favorite things to do at work are opening the library, returning books and doing the mail. When doing the mail, Carpenter gets a list of books that have been requested through interlibrary loans. Interlibrary loans are when the High library sends a book out for another library to borrow or when they borrow a book from another library. Carpenter must find the right books, update information in the system, create shipping labels and then package the books in the mail room.

One thing about working at the High Library is that there are so many different things that need to get done.

“When you work in the library, you do different jobs based on when you’re working,” said Carpenter. “A lot happens at the library!”

On Mondays Carpenter handles the mail, on weekends she and the other library employees shift the stacks from the Dewey Decimal System to the Library of Congress and she also makes sure to keep the coffee kiosk clean. Other jobs at the library include scanning articles, putting books on hold for people and making sure returns have been properly put back on the shelves.

Carpenter also helps students that come into the High Library with anything from checking out and returning books to helping with the printer.

“I like it,” Carpenter said. “It’s pretty easy when you know where everything is.”

Another one of Carpenter’s duties is to make sure that the study rooms have supplies and stay clean. During what the High Library calls stats week, they go around every hour in a week to count how many people are in different areas and how many people have come into the library. That way the library can know what places are used the most at certain times.

Carpenter’s favorite spot in the library is the Tower Room on the fourth floor.

“I really like the Tower Room because it has a great view and it’s quiet. We used to have DnD [Dungeons and Dragons] in there,” Carpenter said.