Nanette Barber

(KARA GILES): Good afternoon and welcome to Northbrook Voices and Oral History Project, sponsored by the Northbrook Historical Society and the Northbrook Public Library in Northbrook, Illinois. Today is Wednesday, July 27th, 2011. My name is Kara Giles. I’m one of the reference librarians at the Northbrook Public Library. I am pleased, most pleased to welcome Nanette Barber. Nanette is an esteemed librarian in the Youth Services Department of the Northbrook Library. We are so glad you’re with us, Nanette, and I would like to begin this interview by asking you to tell me about why you chose to work at Northbrook.

(NANETTE BARBER): I chose to work here because I used to, when I first got married. I was, I had children, and I had a bridge group. And one of the ladies in the bridge group, Marge Chrisman, went back to school and got her master’s degree in library science, and she kept telling us about how wonderful it was and the things she had to do. And we sort of went over her assignments with her, and she was so enthusiastic. She just sort of inspired all the bridge players to sort of help her get to library school. Then, she got a job at the Northbrook Library, and she began to rave about the library. And I had always had great library experiences, loved the library, always went to the library even as a child in Wilmette. And one day she said, somebody in the children’s department, and that’s the term she used at that time, is leaving. Would you like to work three hours a week? And I said, I’d love to. I’ll ask my husband. That’s how unliberated I was at that time. So, I went home and I said, would you mind if I just worked three hours a week? And my husband said, not at all. So, I came here, applied for the job, and got it.

And I believe I worked here for several years as the phantom clerk. I never knew anybody. I never spoke to anybody except people who came into the library. We were at that time in the bottom floor of the building at the rear, where Tech Services is now. People came in the back door, came through the lobby. We were a lot smaller then, and I never knew anybody. I never talked to anybody. Maybe I checked books out occasionally, a lot, and I was just there and then slowly I began to pick up hours. But the reason I came here was basically because somebody asked me to, and I wanted to work at a library, and I wanted to work, and I wanted to earn money, and I, that’s why I came.

(KG): And did you go through a formal interview?

(NB): I did. Richard Combs was the head of the library then, and he was funny and wonderful, and everybody loved him, and he worked. I joined the library in 1970, and I believe he worked for about three more years after that. And then he left and went down to Indiana, and at that time his assistant became the head of the library. It was Deedee Bradbury. I believe that was the order of things. And she stayed for a long time. She stayed until, I believe, 1985, when Chad Raymond came.

(KG): Okay, and how did you make the transition then? From basically circulation to-

(NB): Well, I didn’t ever start at circulation. I always have been in the children’s department.

(KG): And you checked books out?

(NB):  No, I’d go out. They were right outside our door. That was where the circulation department was. So, I would go out there, and that was the only contact I ever had with anybody else who worked in the library. So, I think I began to pick up hours. First, I had three hours, then I worked six hours. And then sometime a few years after I started, they decided to open on a Sunday. And this was a big issue. A lot of libraries didn’t open on Sundays, so they asked if I’d like to work on a Sunday. And I said, well, I wouldn’t mind. I think that would be okay. My husband was good with children, and I had four kids at home, and besides, I got time and a half. Time and a half was the big hook. And I thought, that’s what I earned. That’s what I really deserve anyway. And, you know, we’re talking about $3 here. It’s, it was a whole different world. And so, I just crept up. Pretty soon I had 14 hours, and then in, by 1980 I had worked part time here.

Deedee said, don’t you want to work full time? No. Oh. Susan Roman became the head of the children’s department. She said full time is much better. It’s better for you to work full time. So that’s, that’s when I started. But I had four children, four young children. And during the ten years between 1970 and 1980, I was very involved with my children. I was a soccer mom, a baseball mom, a swimming mom, a homework mom. And so, I, it never occurred to me that it would, that I’d need to work full time because I was working full time at home. And so, when my last child entered high school, I thought maybe it’s doable to become full time. So that’s when I did.

(KG): Did your job duties change then when you became full time?

(NB): Yes, it did. I became more committed to the library. I wasn’t just a fly by night. I no longer was just drop in and pick up my work and do whatever they asked me to do, and then go back home. I began to take on the responsibilities that you do. Daily responsibilities, story times. I did two-year-old stories for years. I did artwork for the summer reading programs. I was in on planning sessions. You suddenly become so involved that this becomes more important, and it feeds on itself, and then you begin to have more fun at it and have more plans for it. So, I, I slipped into full time very willingly. I felt it was the right time, and I had a great time. I had a great time ever since.

(KG): Well, you don’t often hear people use the word “fun” when they describe their work environment, and it’s wonderful to hear you say that.

(NB): I couldn’t work if it wasn’t fun for me. I am a fun-loving person.

(KG): So, what were Northbrook and the library like when you first came here?

(NB): Quite small. We were not hugely busy. I believe I came to work in this library shortly after the library was built. We were over in another place on the corner of Shermer and Cherry, and that’s, the building is still there. It’s very, it’s very small. And they had just built this building. And so, I was one of the first people to arrive in this, but I didn’t make the move. I never was in the old library at all. The building was much smaller than it is now. It didn’t have an auditorium. And the, it didn’t, of course, have this brand-new third of the building that we built in 2000, moved back in. But we had the staircase in the middle of the building. We didn’t have a double staircase. It looked a great deal different than it does now. And it was just a great deal different. We weren’t high-tech in any way.

I remember one of the first nights I worked very slow, and I went into the, I went to where all the picture books are. And I sat down, and I began to sort the picture books alphabetically. And the next time I ever saw human being that worked at the library, they said, what are you doing that for? We don’t sort the picture books. We put all the A’s together and all the B’s together. And so, you see how far we’ve come here. We’ve really, that 30, 35 years ago, we weren’t doing the things.

(KG): What about the village itself in Northbrook? Have you noticed a change in population?

(NB): I live in Glencoe. Northbrook was a pass-through for me. I think the Jewel was there. I think I might have shopped at the Jewel occasionally, but Glencoe was my town, so I really didn’t know the park system. I still don’t know the school district names. I know all the schools’ names, and I know where the children come from, but I don’t know. Glencoe is a smaller town. It has two schools or three schools, and the junior high is right in with the elementary school. So, Northbrook is much bigger, three times bigger than Glencoe. So, the town has not changed to me very much.

(KG): What did you do for lunch throughout the years that you’ve been here?

(NB): I never go out to lunch. Very rarely. And I didn’t, I didn’t used to go into, I never take a break. Very rarely take a break. So, I go out to lunch occasionally, but I mean, I’m not, I’m not a lunch person, so I.

(KG): Did you eat lunch? Do you eat lunch at your desk? Was there always a staff place to eat lunch?

(NB): You know, with the, with part-time, I didn’t actually. I, remember, when I first had lunch here, I was nervous about meeting people. You know, I’d sort of hang around the desk because I thought maybe I, the people wouldn’t like me. I was a shy, I was a shy girl, so I didn’t really. But now it’s all changed. Now I take my lunch downstairs.

(KG): We’re glad to hear that. So, reviewing your work life here at the Northbrook Library, what aspects of your life working in the library have been particularly important to you?

(NB): I think I love reference work. That’s the thing I really love to do because it is the search. It really is. What interests me the most is getting, is finding out information and finding out how to do it. And of course, we didn’t used to have any computers. And I do think that having computers has changed the whole picture of everything. And we used to, it just, it just seems to me that when people say to me, the computers will replace books, I can’t. I can’t go along with that. I do not believe that computers, it’s a whole different thing, the computer work. I am very frustrated by not knowing as much about computers as I would like to know.

And yet I know more than anybody that in my, at my level, in my age group. But I still know there’s so much more for me, and I sometimes feel frustrated because I can’t, I don’t get into it as well as I wish I did. But I believe that in all my library work, that computers have been the most interesting thing about it. And that is because I’ve been able to get the information from the computers.

(KG): So, before there were computers, there were card catalogs and other sort of dinosaur technology, but when you did reference work, you were doing it with children. Is that correct? And perhaps young teenagers? And so, they would come to the desk. Can you walk me through the type of scenario?

(NB): Yes. A child would come to the desk, say a homework assignment, and it was just like, I want to know all I can find out about Genghis Khan or what the world was like in that time. And I always felt like we sort of did it together. We would walk to the small reference department that we had at the Youth Services department, and we would start digging. And I just got the biggest kick out of helping children find the right books, find the information, go to the card catalog, look at the tracings on the old cards.

And it felt a real sense of accomplishment by doing this. And we didn’t know anything better then, and I, we were quite successful in finding an awful lot of information out. One of the jobs I had when I first came was to go through the magazines, the journals that the librarians would pick books, and I would search the card catalog to see if we owned the book. Then, if we didn’t own the book, I would take, I believe it was a five-sheet card, and I would type the order up. Then I would separate the cards, and I would file a card in the card catalog. And at that time, that would be my last check to see whether we really owned the book or not. And then I would take to the technical department the books to be ordered.

Then, when the books did come in, they came with a set of cards. One time we had 35 cards on one, once. It was just enormous, and I was, always had a big problem because instead of looking up cats, I believe we looked up feles. I mean, is that the Latin word for cats? It’s so, it’s a whole new world, and it’s a much better world.

(KG): But the way you were describing it, though, it sounds to me like you actually had a lot more interaction, personal interaction with a student, your notion of together going with this child or the student, and together you would discover the answer rather than pounding something out in a computer and saying, it’s over there at that call number or something like that. It sounds to me like there was a richness in a relationship that could be developed.

(NB): That was good. I, and but I don’t think that we’ve entirely lost that either. I think the patrons really need us. They throw their selves on our mercy. And if we, and of course, we’re always trying them, trying to tell them to look up things the hard way, in a way, not to just take what some man thought his fifth-grade son’s theme was really good so he posted it. And I think we can take the message that way too. But really, people still come to the desk. They still ask us questions. They still, we still go through the steps in a research project. I think that’s what’s so great about Northbrook. I think the people in Northbrook are so dedicated to their children and their children’s learning.

I, every day I am really impressed by some parent who goes the extra step to help. And I’ve always liked being there for them and hoping that I can help a little bit because I still love walking into the library and seeing a mother or a father and a child sitting in a chair reading. It’s just, it’s just beautiful.

(KG): Very worthwhile. What was your initial reaction personally when they got, we got rid of the card catalog altogether and moved to the online catalog?

(NB): I loved it. My cuticles have healed, my cuticles have finally healed. I think it was the most natural step in the world. I went, when somebody comes and says, oh, I miss your old card catalog, I wanted to just say, well, get over it.

(KG): And what about the public that you serve? Did you hear anything about besides, you know, some complaints? Well, the youth, the children, what was their reaction?

(NB): The children just moved without it, without a glitch. They just walked right into it. I’m of the impression that an awful lot of people didn’t know how to use the card catalog anyway, and they, and it sort of trendy to say I missed the card catalog. And I wasn’t buying it. I think a computer is a wonderful thing.

(KG): A wonderful tool.

(NB): Absolutely.

(KG): Can you describe any special events in Northbrook or the library that stand out in your memory?

(NB): Well, I was thinking that with this recent rain, we’ve had huge rain, and we’ve all suffered a little bit. And I understand the other day, the library, the underpass filled. The underpass used to be a little different than it is now. It didn’t have the correct engineering. And when Chad Raymond first came to work here in 1985, we had a downpour that was so enormous that the viaduct filled. The water came over the banks of the river.

We didn’t have the retaining wall then. And Chad spent his first week here mopping the first floor, and that was 1985. And we made a little poster for him and framed it, and we gave him the Royal Order of the mop or something like that. And we didn’t have a computer then. I think we had to cut and paste and Xerox, and I often think about how easy we cut and paste and make little posters now with a computer. And then, it was all manual labor and scissors and glue and everything, but that he was really pushed to the task that first week he worked here. So that was, that was, I think, the weather story as far as I’m concerned. Now that we have our new retaining wall, not so new anymore, I think we don’t, we won’t have these weather problems.

(KG): Hopefully not. But still it has been a horrific year for snowstorms, tornadoes. You mentioned floods. Do you remember any other weather-related events that made it difficult to come to work? Or the library this year was closed three days in a row. Do you ever recall any?

(NB): Never, never before. Even in a snowstorm. I think once or twice I was snowed in, but I think the library has just been like the post office. We really just stay open as much as we possibly can. And we’re hardy.

(KG): Indeed.

(NB): Yes.

(KG): Is there anything else about the library that you’d like to talk about that I haven’t touched on?

(NB): I think one of the experiences that I liked at this library was when we built on our new addition, which is ten years old now. We moved to the Jewel for a year, and the Jewel was all cleaned out. I don’t know how they got as many shelves in as they did. And the Youth Services was on one side, popular, Readers Services was on one side. We just got all mushed in there together, and the central desk was all children’s or youth services department, the reference department, and readers service. And that was a wonderful year. We had more, really bond, good bonding then. We saw what the other departments went through, what they did, what their jobs were.

We worked together. We, it was, it just a marvelous year for getting to know each other and to realize what responsibilities all the different libraries, all the different departments, had. I loved that year. I loved moving back here, too. I mean, it was very nice.

(KG): It’s a wonderful memory, though. The solidarity. They were all pulling together on the same team for the same team. Is there anything else you’d like to talk about?

(NB): Well, I like telling you my stories. I’ve just had a great time working here. It’s been, it’s been terribly rewarding. And I’ve had other careers. Before I, before I got married, and having children and everything. And I can’t imagine working in a place that gives me as much as I give it. So, I am very happy here. And so, it’s been a pleasure working here.

(KG): Well, the stories you tell, I think, amply reflect that you’ve been happy, and the people that I have worked with you also reflect how happy they’ve been. You are well thought of. So anyway, I’d like to thank you very much for participating in Northbrook Voices, Nanette, and your memories of your work here at the Northbrook Library are going to add a unique and personal perspective about the history of our village. Thank you.

(NB): You’re welcome.