Recollections and Connections Transcript

[Transcript of interview with Kim Flores, recorded as part of the Springfield-Greene County Library District's 2010 Big Read. For more information contact the Library at 417-883-5366 or visit us on the web.]

This recording is part of the Big Read 2010 recorded at the Library Center on March 7, and this is Kim Flores and Elena Flores.

EF: Hi Kim.

KF: Hi Elena.

EF: Where do you live?

KF: I live in Springfield Missouri, with you.

EF: And how old are you?

KF: Oh, you don’t ask a lady how old she is. [laughs] I’m older than you, how about that. [laughs] What do you want to talk with me about today Elena?

EF: About your library.

KF: About my library? Because I work at the library?

EF: Yes.

KF: What do you want to know?

EF: Like, do you know how many people have been coming to the library?

KF: Oh, gosh, a lot of people come to the library. I work out at the Republic branch and we had, last month, 9,903 people who came through the door.

EF: That is a very lot.

KF: That’s a lot. In the summertime it will be even more than that because the kids will be out of school. I’ve always like libraries. In fact, when I was in school I kind of helped the school librarian when I could. And then when I was at Drury I worked at the Drury library for a while. I worked at a law firm and I kind of took care of keeping that library neat and clean. And when I worked at Hospice we had a small library and I was in charge of adding books to that, and keeping that up-to-date. And then, what do you know? There was an ad in the paper and they wanted someone to work at the Midtown Library. And it was the Main Library back then. So, I applied for that job and they gave it to me and I’ve been with the library ever since. And it makes me really happy to help people find great books to read, and information they want. Sometimes I’m just helping them make a copy on the copy machine but I still like that because I feel like I’ve helped. I like to help people.

EF: So, what’s your library name?

KF: I work at the Republic Branch Library.

EF: And what kind of cultures do you have?

KF: Cultures? You mean what kind of people come in?

EF: Yeah.

KF: Well, we have all kinds of people. We have some folks who have come from Russia, and we have Spanish speaking library patrons, and some Asian folks who come to the library. And then we have a lot of people who were born and raised in Republic; they’ve lived there all their lives. And I think they’re really proud of our library. I hope they are.

EF: So, like, what kind of books do you have?

KF: Well, we have everything you can imagine at the library. I feel really lucky that I work in a library system that cares about what we have available for people and so we try to, try to find books for just about everybody you can think of. Funny books, sad books, books that…

EF: Happy books?

KF: …help you learn about things.

EF: Happy books?

KF: Happy books, yeah, all kind of great things. And I love to read so I often have a lot of those books at my house. You know that, right?

EF: Yes.

KF: Mm, hmm.

EF: And so…

KF: You know who taught me a love of reading?

EF: Who?

KF: Well everybody in my family was a reader, but when I, I was the very first grandchild born into my family on my mom’s side, and so I got kind of spoiled because everybody read to me. Grandma and Grandpa read to me. My mom, my dad, my uncles, everybody read to me. And so I had a lot of books. By the time I was two years old I had just about every Little Golden book you can imagine. And some of them I knew by heart even back then because they’d been read to me so many times.

EF: Have you ever done any programs at your library?

KF: Oh, you know I’ve done lots of programs and you’re my helper, you’re one of my helpers aren’t you?

EF: Yep.

KF: Yeah, you’re kind of, I call you my guinea pig sometimes, don’t I, ‘cause I try things out on you. Does this work? Does that work? Did you like this? Did you like these stories? And I knew if you were fidgety and not paying attention that maybe I needed to choose a different book for story time.

EF: Yeah.

KF: Yeah. But we’ve read a lot of good books together, haven’t we?

EF: Yeah,

KF: Yeah. I’m looking forward to reading a lot more in the future. I hope you never stop enjoying hearing me read to you.

EF: I never have.

KF: You never will?

EF: Right.

KF: All right. Thanks Elena.

EF: You’re welcome.

KF: All right.

Recorded as part of the Springfield-Greene County Library District’s 2010 Big Read. For more information contact the library at 417-883-5366 or visit us on the web at thelibrary.org.