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- Title:
- Suzanne Klinger interview
- Interviewee:
- Klinger, Suzanne
- Interviewer:
- Wadland, Justin
- Date Created:
- 2017-12-14
- Role:
- Staff
- Department:
- Library
- Subjects:
- librarianship social justice Brian Bannon Deborah Stansbury Sunday diversity Bothell
- Biography:
- Suzanne Klinger was born in 1957 in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania. She received a liberal arts college education at Gettysburg College and majored in Ancient Greek. She began her early career as a teaching assistant at a private school established for at-risk youth, primarily serving students who came from inner-city Philadelphia. It was there that she discovered a possible professional path in librarianship, and she went on to complete her MA in librarianship at University of Chicago in 1984. In Chicago, she witnessed issues inherent in and associated with the urban environment and developed her concern for social justice. She also met her partner, who is from Seattle. By the time she relocated to Tacoma in 1989, she had already worked at libraries at the University of Illinois at Chicago, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, and Duke University. In Tacoma, after a brief period working in the Pierce County Library System, Klinger joined founding librarian Deborah Stansbury Sunday to become the second employee at the University of Washington Tacoma Library. She has been here for 28 years, and she is now the Head of Reference and Research Services, overseeing the reference desk. Her subject specialty areas include Communication, History, Sociology, and Urban Studies.
- Description:
- In the interview, Klinger describes how she came to work at UW Tacoma Library. She relates that the recruitment of staff was concurrent with the faculty curriculum planning conference in spring 1990. She recounts how, in the early days, the library worked closely with its Seattle counterpart, borrowed from its established systems, and designed new procedures to circulate materials across the campuses. The conversation then turns to interdepartmental relationships. Klinger notes that the library operated somewhat independently from the campus administration and how that resulted in feelings of animosity, as well as challenges faced by the founding librarian, Deborah Stansbury Sunday, who happens to be African-American. The interview then shifts from the lack of diversity in the initial faculty to transformations at the library and of Klinger's position. To Klinger, the establishment of UW Tacoma's physical presence aided a sense of rootedness and connection to the local community. She remarks that the early student body did not reflect the diversity of the local population and on the difficulty to amend that. She then ponders how the institution might help the homeless population or alleviate the impact on gentrification its development has caused. In the final portion of the interview, Klinger shares her perspective on mentorship, naming a few past student employees at UW Tacoma Library, including Brian Bannon, who is now the Commissioner of the Chicago Public Library system. She reflects on how technology has transformed the practice and meaning of her work. While regretting the University's regression toward less interdisciplinary and more traditional degree offerings, she expresses hopes in an increased commitment to social justice and fairness on both the school's and the library's part.
- Location:
- United States--Illinois--Chicago United States--Washington (State)--Tacoma
- Type:
- Sound; Text; StillImage
- Format:
- cpd
- Preferred Citation:
- University of Washington Libraries, University of Washington Tacoma Library, UWTOH201703