Drew | The Providence Athenæum
My name is Drew and I’m a library assistant at the Providence Athenæum. It’s basically working both the circulation desk and the visitor center. [I’ve worked here for] almost three years.
I used to work in a library when I was in college and grad school. Then I worked in publishing for a long time, and I left it, and I was looking for something different, and I saw this. It literally was that random. I saw this pop up, and I applied for it on a hunch. I met the staff, and they were awesome. And I was like, “Well, I think this is gonna be fun.”
My brother is a librarian, but he works in publishing now. It’s like the reverse. And we’ve never discussed this, but it is kind of funny. My mom was a teacher; my dad was super into reading and books. So it was never like, “that’s what we’re both gonna do” at all. But we both ended up going that direction. I think it was just a respect for the written word and the importance of books in our society. I think that came from my parents.
Providence is pretty lucky to have the Athenæum. It is a really special place. And to have a historical place that still is kind of between two worlds, with the history of the building, but also with a lot of young students and younger families. Our membership’s been going up the past few years. So it’s cool that it’s still relevant to the community.
Michelle Bi studies English and International & Public Affairs at Brown University. On campus, she writes for The Brown Daily Herald and is involved in social science research. She grew up in Ventura County, CA and enjoys playing guitar and crossword puzzles.
Want to comment? Click!