This second semester, a new face joined the library staff: Mrs. Anderson.
Anderson is from New Jersey, but came down to Florida to row for Jacksonville University. Since moving, one of her biggest challenges has been trying to keep her garden alive in the Florida summers. Gardening is one of Anderson’s favorite hobbies, and her garden is probably where you can find her when she is not in the library or on the water. Her favorite plants to grow are herbs and berries.
Though she is the new Librarian Assistant, Anderson is not new to Bolles. For the past seven years, she has been the boys’ freshman novice crew coach and a substitute teacher.
Anderson also loves to play with her black lab Vader and husky Seeker. Vader’s name is inspired by Darth Vader, the villain in the Star Wars series. Anderson is a huge Star Wars fan and her favorite movie is Episode III – Revenge of the Sith.
When Anderson was little, she had no intention of working in a library. In college, she got her degrees in History. “I never thought I’d be in a library… I saw the job post up and thought, “Oh, that could be fun,” so I applied.”
Now that she’s been in the library for roughly two months, Anderson has learned that her favorite thing about her new job is seeing all the new books come in and being able to read them. “We’ve got a lot of new books. I would say almost 100 new ones. We take suggestions from kids, and so we added a ton of manga because we didn’t have that before… Seeing kids check it out was pretty sweet.”
One thing that has shocked Anderson so far has been the amount of activity in the library during activities. “You would think that it would be slow, but during activities and zero hour, it’s bumping in here. It’s really cool to see how many kids actually use the library.”
Right now, Anderson says that her favorite book is The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss. “We just got it in, too, and I love fantasy books. It’s very long, but really good.”
Anderson recommends The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien to all high school students. “I’m biased because I studied history but say The Lord of the Rings because I’m a big nerd.”
Anderson wants all students to know that she’s approachable. “Come up and talk to me. I’m new to this position, but not new here, so just come and talk. I’m always here. If you want to have a book talk or a talk about anything really, just come and visit.”
