Jessie Arnone kindly consented to being interviewed by me September 25, 2015 in the rarely quiet Cohocton Public Library. To listen to the interview, click the black podcast bar above. The audio play works better if you click “Play in new window” (I’ll work on making it better, promise.) To read a transcript of the interview, click “Transcript”. If possible, I recommend the listen over the read in this case.
Transcript
Margo: I’m talking to Jessie Arnone (is that how I spell-say your name?). I’m talking to Jessie Arnone at the Cohocton Public Library. She is the library’s – well, Jessie would you tell me who you are and what your position at the library is?
Jessie: Well, like you said, my name is Jessie and my position here is the Youth Programming Library Assistant.
Margo: Wow.
Jessie: Yeah.
Margo: That’s a long title. So, when I think about the things I want to know about people who come to the system, there is a strong bias that I have toward the culture of librarianship. It’s one of my priorities. I really like being a librarian, I’m into it. And I really like public libraries, so most of the questions, you might notice, are actually about public libraries and a little less about you. But I hope you are ok with it.
Jessie: That’s fine.
Margo: So, what’s the best thing about public libraries?
Jessie: Well, recently I’ve become more aware of the libraries and what they have to offer. And the role they play in the town or community. It seems like it’s changed quite a bit from when I was a child. And maybe I was as involved then, but it seems like a lot of libraries are offering more programs and things for the community, so it’s a place for community to meet and to have club meetings or group meetings. Or it’s a place for the library to put on things to entertain the community and educate the community and really just bring services that are not offered any where else. It’s kind of a cool space for public to meet and share information and knowledge and I really like that.
Margo: I’m in agreement on all those points. Those are all best things. Especially at the Cohocton Public Library.
Jessie: Right.
Margo: I gotta say, if you were going to go work for a public library, boom.
Jessie: Yeah, I think Hope pretty much saw that because we had talked before and I was really interested in working with the community and she told me all the cool things the library has been doing, which is very different from some of the other ones I’ve seen.
Margo: Yeah. In the profession, we use this phrase “best practices” for like, I don’t know, everything. But I think you walked into a library that has a lot of what we consider “best practices” for public libraries, so yeah, it’s good.
So, why did you come to work for a library?
Jessie: Before that I had been teaching at community centers. In other places that I lived there were more of them – that was sort of where the public came to. I like to teach, but I’m not always a school person, so, I like to be out in the community. And it seemed like, once we moved back here, that the libraries were really filling that position…
Margo: Yeah.
Jessie: …as the community center. So, I sort of fell into this position, but it was perfect – the way that I’m able to do what I was excited about doing and libraries are awesome anyways. That was fun.
Margo: True. Where were you living before here?
Jessie: I lived on Cape Cod for a year and a half with my parents. And we started with the whole, you know, seasonal jobs and then worked into more community jobs. I started teaching at the Cotuit Center for the Arts and the Cultural Center of Cape Cod and a couple other like enrichment programs.
Margo: M hm. Are you originally from upstate New York or are you originally from elsewhere?
Jessie: I’m from central New York. An hour south of Albany. Catskill Mountains. [The transcriber would like to note that only a person from the Catskills/east of the finger lakes, would consider over by Albany central NY.] Yeah, it’s a really pretty spot.
Margo: And you’re electing not to live there.
Jessie: Well, my parents moved to Cape Cod so I don’t really have the family connection anymore. And I’m pretty sure that was the only thing that was there. Western New York is pretty cool too.
Margo: I think it’s beautiful.
Jessie: It is beautiful. I agree.
Margo: You already answered this question: What was your life before the library? Is there anything you would like to addend your previous answer with?
Jessie: Uhm.
Margo: Have you been – did you go to college?
Jessie: I did go to college. I went to Alfred University for art.
Margo: Aahw. So you do have also some of that western New York connection?
Jessie: I have a whole, right, so that’s what brought me out here in the first place, is college. So I was here for about six years doing that. And then we moved to Cape Cod for a little while.
Margo: Alfred University or Alfred State?
Jessie: Alfred University.
Margo: Do you have a BFA [Bachelors of Fine Art]?
Jessie: I do and I also have my masters in teaching. It was a nice combination.
Margo: What did you focus on as part of your BFA? Was it jewelry? You do jewelry programs.
Jessie: It was sculpture. I got back into jewelry. I did jewelry when I was really little, and then senior year I sort of went back into that wearable art. But while I was at college I did glass blowing and metal casting and a couple of other little things. But mostly metal and glass.
Margo: Yeah. Awesome.
Jessie: Which is funny – they had the Paint Night the other night and they were like “Ooh, we have an artist on staff, we’ll have someone there,” and I was like “I don’t paint, but I’m here.”
Margo: It’s different!
Jessie: Very different.
Margo: It’s like my mom is always finding these weird jobs for me that she thinks I should apply for. And they’re always IT jobs. Like, almost every single time. Or, they’re some like, very specific digital preservation archives job and she’s like “Margo look!” and I’m like “I don’t know how to do that!”.
Jessie: They’re very different!
Margo: That’s not my librarianship. That’s different from what I do.
So, what is your life like outside of the library? Do you still do work as an artist? Do you still focus on jewelry, sculpture – what’s going on?
Jessie: I am still an artist. I make jewelry and I sell at local shows. I’m going to Grape Festival this weekend, which is exciting.
Margo: In Naples?
Jessie: In Naples. It’s a big one. I’ve never done one that big.
Margo: It’s huge.
Jessie: And I’m working on a small homestead, with my boyfriend. We are raising goats for dairy. We have chickens, and I just pulled my first honey off my beehive. So it’s all been very exciting.
Margo: That is exciting. Aw. I love chickens. I think they’re really funny. What kind of goats do you have? Do you know?
Jessie: Yes, I do. I have one pygmy goat – well we inherited one pygmy goat and one sort of barn mutt goat. I don’t know what she is. And then we just got two Nigerian dwarfs.
[Transcriber will not transcribe any of the incoherent sentimental muttering Margo gives throughout the entire section where small farm type animals are discussed. Imagine ecstatic exclamations and uncontrollable giggles everytime the mention of a tiny animal happens in Jessie’s description of her homestead.]
Jessie: They are even smaller. They’re so cute.
Margo: They’re my favorite goat. It’s like my dream to have Nigerian dwarf goats in my life. Like, for me to just walk out of my house and be like *gasp* “Hello, Nigerian dwarf goats! Good morning! How are you guys?” It’s what I want.
Jessie: They’re very similar to dogs, so you could do that.
Margo: I know! I met some at a county fair last year and I was like “Oh.”
Jessie: Yup.
Margo: I actually – my sweetheart laughs at me because when we pass, there’s a goat farm – er, or there’s a farm that we pass regularly, and they used to have llamas and alpacas and that kind of stuff. But they have two tiny donkeys. I got misty eyed. It’s so cute! I don’t think people know me as a sentimental person, but, man, for some reason, dwarf animals drive me crazy.
Jessie: They have mini cows too.
[sounds]
Margo: I don’t think I could handle that.
Jessie: Yeah? Like dog sized cows.
[sounds]
Margo [recovered]: Just thinking about it makes me want to cry, it’s just so darn cute. Gives me hope in the universe.
Jessie: And mini-sheep! I read about those the other day.
Margo: Sheep are already sort of small.
Jessie: They’re like Nigerian dwarf size. [sounds] They are really cute. I’m definitely going raise a herd of very small goats.
[sounds]
Margo [pulling herself together]: We’ll continue to talk about this. I guess not any more today, but, oh, I have to know more.
Jessie: Ok good, we’ll invite you over when they have babies.
[sounds]
Margo: Ok! What are you afraid of breaking or ruining at your public library, now that you’re new?
Jessie: I’m really worried I’m going to mis-shelve something and we’re never going to find it.
Margo: Lost forever!
Jessie: Yeah. I’ve tried looking for books and when they’re not, like, right there, I’m just like [laughter].
Margo: I’m not looking on every shelf.
Jessie: It could be everywhere, so…
Margo: So, one of my favorite terrible things to do to volunteers, is to request that they shelf read. Because no staff person ever has time to shelf read, but it’s the only way you find those things.
Jessie: Right!
Margo: It can be very disheartening though.
Jessie: I’ve definitely noticed that though. I’ll go to shelve books and I’ll be like “Wait, that book is in the wrong spot.” That takes me like 20 minutes to do that and then there’s someone waiting at the desk, so…
Margo: So done!
Jessie: So, it needs to happen!
Margo: Yeah, it’s sort of goofily simple, so I think shelf reading is a really great task for volunteers, because they’re not adding anything to the shelf. They’re just making sure everything is in the right place, so they can’t really do anything wrong. And, they learn the collection better.
Jessie: Right.
Margo: I’m kind of a big fan.
Have you ever watched this movie Party Girl?
Jessie: No.
Margo: It’s about this girl, her name is Park- the actress’s name is Parker Posey. But she’s living a life and her aunt gets her a job at a New York Public Library branch. And she finally understands, like overnight one night, she gets it – she gets Dewey. She gets the whole thing and she’s underslept and really tired and she’s sitting at the circulation desk and this guy just takes a book off the shelf, looks at it, and puts it back in a different spot. And she has a public meltdown. And I always think of that when people are like “I’m afraid of putting something back in the wrong place.” I’m like, you should be.
Jessie: Yeah.
Margo: One day we’ll watch the movie together.
What’s the first big project you’re excited about working on at the library?
Jessie: I’ve been doing a couple programs, so those have all been going well and they’re fun. The biggest thing – well, summer reading will be really big and I haven’t even touched that yet. But, the biggest thing that I’m planning right now are some grants.
Margo: Ok.
Jessie: One of them I just applied for and that is the Curiosity Creates grant. That was put on by Disney.
Margo: Ok.
Jessie: My idea was to (well, it was a borrowed idea, but) we’re going to make creativity kits – little boxes of mystery art materials or materials and twenty kids get to take them and build whatever they want from within the theme. So, sea animals or something.
Margo: Like, build a whale!
Jessie: Right, it could be whatever – time travel! I don’t care, just, you know, make something really cool and use everything that’s in the box. And they pretty much have to do it by themselves. But after a month we’re going to come back together and show off what we’ve made and talk about it and display it around town.
Margo: Awesome.
Jessie: Yeah. So I think that will be a lot of fun.
Margo: You applied but did you already get awarded the grant? Or not yet?
Jessie: I applied like Monday.
Margo: Kay. That would be cool. If you don’t get this grant, are you going to seek secondary funding for it?
Jessie: I don’t know. Because I sort of built it based on the criteria for that grant, because it all seemed to fit.
Margo: Right.
Jessie: I might try to do something a little bit different, depending on the grant. There is another grant that I’m trying to apply for. I’m really excited about my idea for it. It’s the one, uhm, the Southern Finger Lakes and I think I want to do the Artist Crossroads or the Community Arts one.
Margo: Oh, ok. M hm.
Jessie: And my idea was there’s a local lady who does – she does painting on records, but she also does fairy house camp in the summer time. We had been talking about maybe doing a fairy house workshop or something fun because a couple of us are interested.
Margo: And that’s why – Sorry to interrupt – you made a, like a form for that on your website.
Jessie: I did. So that was a survey to see if people would be interested. The overarching idea of the grant is that it has to b a public artwork. My thought was that we’d hold a couple classes or workshops in how to make fairy houses. And then, working with this artist, build a larger installation, probably, late spring, in the park. And then we could do smaller – people could do individual fairy houses around town and we could do a scavenger hunt.
Margo: That’s pretty cool.
Jessie: I think it will be really cool. I don’t know if the whole town is interested. I know that certain people are interested. But that’s why I wanted to do the survey. See if people would.
Margo: I think all kids are into fairy houses. Unless they’re told they’re not allowed to believe in fairies.
Jessie: That’s sad.
Margo: What do you want everyone to know about your new job and what you’re going to do with it?
Jessie: I think everyone should know that we’re going to have some really good programs. And I want to be here for people’s ideas, if there’s things you want to do, that would be cool. I just think it will be exciting to have one person whose in charge of lots of programming and kids stuff. I’m excited so I hope everyone else is too.
Margo: I think I can speak for the system and say that we’re all excited to have you.
Thank you Jessie for that really good interview!
Jessie: Thank you! It was very fun.
