Life In the Carolina's Podcast: The Banjo Librarian

The Banjo Librarian

Sep 27, 2021

On this episode of the Life in the Carolinas podcast, Carl sits down with librarian Suzanne Moore. The two met at a local farmer's market when Suzanne was playing the banjo (she refers to herself as an "amateur plucker") to promote the new Seed Library over at Wilkes County Public Library. Carl quickly realized that Suzanne was no "ordinary" librarian.

Since childhood, Suzanne has had a deep passion for books, recalling having loaned her favorite reads to her friends regularly. She has always, by extension, had a love for people and community service, as well as an insatiable curiosity and openness to new ideas. So, it was no wonder that she chose the path that she did as an adult.

Suzanne refers to the library as "the people's university." Not only is there no tuition, but there is also a level of freedom in navigating a library that is not found in adhering to a strict curriculum and paying for assigned textbooks.

At the pandemic outbreak in early 2020, Suzanne touches on the pain she felt at temporarily shutting the library's doors. She remembers telling borrowers to "forget about the due dates" and the gradual steps they took to make their services available to the public once again, starting with curbside pickup to extending the library's Wi-Fi outdoors to offering virtual programs via Zoom.

In many ways, the crisis paved the way for many opportunities and ideas that would not have emerged otherwise. For example, the local students, digital natives, have now been given access to the library through the gadgets they are intimately familiar with.

What's more, the library has found more visitors since its doors were first closed. As Suzanne says, "We've seen an increase in library usage during the pandemic because folks that didn't have the opportunity to visit, maybe due to transportation barriers, were able to connect virtually."

Carl and Suzanne go on to give their thoughts on the power of the written word—of the ability of an excellent book to develop a person's mental and emotional maturity, deepen one's appreciation of the humanities, and allow the past to come alive as a book serves as a window into the minds of great men and women.