I chatted with Jeremy Hammack, an IT Support Technician here at the Mississippi Library Commission, who has been working here for just over two years. His job covers troubleshooting problems, installing equipment, and monitoring and maintaining services here at MLC and at the hundreds of public libraries across Mississippi. He also acts as a liaison between third party tech people and our libraries, especially when they need consultation assistance.
Jeremy graduated with a bachelor’s degree in writing from Mississippi College back in 2014. After graduation, Jeremy and his girlfriend (now wife) moved to Columbus and opened a board game and bookstore called Books and Boards. They wanted to be a community space where people could gather to have fun any day of the week. While their shop didn’t last much longer than a year, they formed some great collaborations with people, like the pie shop that shared their space. Jeremy connected with the local public library (shout out to Columbus-Lowndes!) where he ran an open invite Dungeons and Dragons session that spawned more community games in the area.
Jeremy worked food service jobs while in college and fell into the same again after Books and Boards closed. He enjoyed interacting with all the people and the hectic pace when they were busy, but it didn’t pay the bills. He headed to a job service and told them he wanted to do anything but what he’d been doing; they suggested the tech field. He gave himself a crash course and lucked into a job with some great people. They gave him a lot of on-the-job training and he discovered that he genuinely liked working in the area. The puzzle aspect of it intrigued him because he loves figuring things out: how they work and fit together. When he and his wife decided to move back to the Jackson area, he looked for a job in the same field.
With Jeremy’s work experience, he has discovered that he enjoys creating and championing places for people to be their authentic selves. In the tech field, that means making things less intimidating. Many librarians are far removed from the tech world and that type of thing can seem completely foreign to them. He loves helping people feel less alienated from the things they need to do their jobs. He also loves connecting with people; for example, he has an important coloring appointment with a regular patron the next time he’s at the Aberdeen Public Library.
When Jeremy was a kid, his mom would go to the library for big stacks of books. He was always a little overwhelmed there because of what he thinks of as the “sacred” quality of libraries: the stillness and quiet didn’t mesh well with his ADHD. He was also amazed that his mom held such a vast array of knowledge from all the books she read. He could point to seemingly any shelf, and she could tell him about the authors! Now, having worked in the places he has, he sees that libraries are actually community spaces with books. His awe remains, but he sees how they have evolved to serve even more people in even more ways, and he loves it.
Elisabeth Scott,
Reference Librarian