Hi, I am Maddie Klutts, and I am a Reference and Archives Librarian with the Information Services department at the Mississippi Library Commission. I have been with MLC for a little over a year now and in that time the duties for my job have changed a lot, meaning I wear a number of hats and work on a number of projects much like the other reference librarians.

My main role here is to answer reference questions. These questions can come from everyone, from other librarians, to Mississippi residents, to out of state people, to politicians. Reference librarians here have several ways that people can ask questions, including by phone, email, chat, and letter. We get a variety of questions here, often about books we have or genealogy; some can be answered quickly, but sometimes I will spend days trying to track down, for example, the address of a building from 100 years ago. We also do BookMatch, where you can fill out a form on our website asking about your book preferences and we do our best to find books you might like.

One of my other jobs here at the Commission is to watch over the records management program and archives on site. There are a lot of rules surrounding how long certain documents are supposed to kept and how we can dispose of them. It is my job to pass this information along to everybody at MLC and make sure we are all following the rules regarding what to keep and when to throw things away.

People in my family were probably not surprised when I decided to become a librarian. Growing up, my grandma ran a small-town library in Nebraska (thanks for the memories, Klyte Burt Memorial Library!) and when I would visit over the summer I spent a lot of time there. Whether I was reading in a mini nook I made for myself behind the desk, or taking apart computers for a summer reading project, or even sitting at the library desk and checking out books for people when my grandma had to run errands, I was always excited to be there.

Before I had even finished undergraduate, I decided I wanted to be a librarian and applied for library school. In school, I experimented with a lot of different library jobs and worked at a university library, a public library circulation desk, and at an archive helping to catalog collections. Towards the end of my master’s degree, I was looking for a job and happened across this one. I thought that reference sounded interesting, and I had really enjoyed doing research in college, so I applied and have been able to bring a lot of my different library job experiences with me to help with all my different projects here.

I am glad to work here because I remember how much libraries helped me as a kid whether it was checking out books or participating in programs or even just hanging out after school and studying. The library can provide so much for the community, and I want to pass this on to future generations.

Maddie Klutts
Reference and Archives Librarian