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Throughout his career as a librarian, Marcellus Turner (\u201988) has often chosen his next position by the city rather than the job itself \u2013 soaking in each new location\u2019s culture, challenges and opportunities. He always had his eye on the Pacific Northwest and is currently celebrating his eighth year as chief librarian for The Seattle Public Library. He loves his job, he loves his city, and he believes he is in a very good space in a long and fulfilling career.<\/p>\n
Running the library for a large northwestern city wasn\u2019t what a young Turner had envisioned for his future. He had earned his undergraduate degree in audiology and pathology from the University for Women in Columbus, Mississippi, and was attending the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, to earn his master\u2019s in the same field. He had moved into an apartment complex near campus, and it was there that a series of fortunate events occurred and led him to where he is today.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn my unit there were two or three other library graduate science majors, and I had the only car. Long story short, I was dropping them off one day and I sat there on the second floor waiting for them, and I sat down and looked in the career notebook,\u201d he recounted. \u201cAt that time, all of the job opportunities were listed in a notebook \u2013 that shows you how old I am. I was flipping through the notebook and I noticed some jobs in some great cities and I thought, \u2018I can do that.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Turner\u2019s wanderlust may have instigated a shift to librarianship, but within it he found his true calling. It took a few years for him to find his groove, but once he did, he discovered a world in which he could impact staff, libraries, communities and people.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not suggesting I\u2019m an inspiration story…but I think it would be quite encouraging for minority students at the University of Tennessee [School of Information Sciences] to see that a little black boy from Mississippi could meet the pinnacle of library success,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Turner made his initial foray into librarianship in academic libraries \u2013 starting out at UT Chattanooga, then he spent a year in Lake Charles, Louisiana, before returning to East Tennessee and working for four years at East Tennessee State University. But after about eight years, he was ready for a change.<\/p>\n
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\u201cI decided I no longer wanted to work only in academic libraries, so I packed up the truck and moved over to public libraries,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
For Turner, academic libraries became repetitive in the day-to-day work with patrons. Despite moving up in seniority, he wasn\u2019t as excited by what he was doing as he had been initially.<\/p>\n
\u201cPublic libraries provided differences in the people I would see, the communities I would serve, opportunities to do more and to be out in the community and not be beholden to a particular location in the city,\u201d he said. While he found the transition from academic libraries to public rather easy, what was difficult was finding jobs that took into account his previous supervisory experience \u2013 and being a supervisor is what really gets Turner energized. \u201cOnly in supervisory positions are you able to bring about the changes you would like to see for the public; and only in supervisory positions are you able to bring about the changes and opportunity you would like to see for the staff,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Turner\u2019s first public librarian job was in Atlantic City, New Jersey, and that set off a career that took him to places including: Tacoma, Washington; Rockford, Illinois; and Jefferson County Public Library in Colorado. He says he often \u201cchased cities, more than I chased jobs as I wanted to see the world.\u201d<\/p>\n
As Turner moved from one city to the next, he found there are universal needs and wants in each community \u2013 such as the public always wanting better hours and more access \u2013 but that there are differences in which members of that community need resources the most, he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI do like variety and opportunity, and that\u2019s the beauty of the work that we do. This education and preparation, this work I do is transferable,\u201d Turner said.<\/p>\n
Turner has found his niche in life with libraries, and wants others to be able to do the same. He currently serves on the UT College of Communication and Information Board of Visitors, and he also has established the Marcellus Turner Student Travel Scholarship.<\/p>\n
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The scholarship allows an SIS student to travel to a conference, even if they are not presenting or otherwise participating in the conference as more than an attendee.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I moved over to librarianship, I came blindly in terms of the profession and the association itself. I truly had no idea what I was stepping into,\u201d he said. \u201cI knew what librarianship was, but not what the [American Library Association] was, and initially I didn\u2019t go to the annual conferences.\u201d<\/p>\n
Turner said it\u2019s important for students to be able to attend conferences to network with other students and professionals, so he created the travel scholarship.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a lot of opportunity in going to conferences, and I don\u2019t just mean in terms of jobs, but a lot of exposure for students. We just do not avail ourselves to these opportunities, and I wanted to give students a chance at that before they stepped into the real world,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
This story was featured in Spark: Annual Publication of the University of Tennessee, Knoxville School of Information Sciences | 2019<\/a>. If you are an alumni and would like to receive next year\u2019s edition, update your information here<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Throughout his career as a librarian, Marcellus Turner (\u201988) has often chosen his next position by the city rather than the job itself \u2013 soaking in each new location\u2019s culture, challenges and opportunities. He always had his eye on the Pacific Northwest and is currently celebrating his eighth year as chief librarian for The Seattle […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[56],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7937","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-featured-story"],"yoast_head":"\n