Getting to Know University Librarian Diane Graves

The daughter of a librarian, Diane Graves visited libraries as a young child, thus sealing her fate, but she wouldn’t turn down the chance to be a Weather Channel meteorologist or a Radio City Rockette. Like porpoises, Graves can often be seen smiling. Read why.

How big is your staff and how do you motivate your staff?
Coates Library has 25 full time employees: 13 brilliant professional librarians and 12 fabulous paraprofessional staff. And then there are the 37 amazing students workers who help us keep the doors open, staff the circulation desk, reshelve materials, and work in Special Collections, acquisitions, cataloging, and interlibrary loan. We’re motivated by our mutually good sense of humor. We’re all a little wacky and we have a lot of fun together.

True or false (and why): Librarians always shush noisy patrons.
Totally, utterly false. Sometimes we are the noisy ones, prompting patrons to hush us.True story: In my first job as an academic librarian, a patron wrote in to the suggestion box to ask that I be fired -- because I was too audible when I was helping researchers at the reference desk.

How did you discover that you were a librarian at heart?
My mother was a public and school librarian. When I was seven, she took me to work with her on weekends and made me put the ownership stamps and circulation book pockets into the new books. That must have sealed my fate.

What profession other than yours would you like to attempt?
I’d love to work for the Weather Channel as an on-air meteorologist. If not that, a guide on whitewater river raft trips. OK, one more: a Radio City Rockette.

What is your favorite aspect of heading a campus library?
I really like the fast pace of change in academic libraries: shifts in the scholarly communication system and access to information.This business has changed profoundly since I entered it in 1981. Technology has made so many things possible! It would be boring if it weren’t in a state of constant flux.

Least favorite?
Preparing the annual budget request.

Who inspires you?
Bunny Watson, the female lead character (played by Katharine Hepburn opposite Spencer Tracy) in the 1957 film Desk Set. If you don’t know why I find her inspiring, you need to see the movie. (One hint: Bunny runs the research department at a TV network.)

Favorite color?
Periwinkle blue.

What sound do you love?
The sound of the Colorado River as it descends through the Grand Canyon.

The sound you hate?
Fire alarms going off in Coates Library. They bring new meaning to the phrase “ear-piercing.”

What is your favorite word?
Vacation.

Your least favorite word?
“Impacted.” Impact is not a verb.

If you were reincarnated as some other plant or animal, what would it be and why?
I would be a porpoise. I love water and swimming. Porpoises are intelligent, they are strong swimmers, and they are always smiling.