Staff Spotlight: Jake Brown

For the past three years, Jake Brown has been a familiar face for our patrons, and last month he stepped into a new role as our Teen and Youth Services Librarian.

We sat down with Jake to learn a bit more about him.

Tell us a little about yourself.

I was born and raised in Bridgeville and was a frequent patron at the library growing up. I graduated from Cal U with an English degree with a focus on journalism. After school, I worked as a paraprofessional for a number of years while also working at the library during afternoons and weekends.

How long have you been working at the library?

I’ve been working at the library for about three years now. I was a Community Services Clerk before becoming the Teen and Youth Services Librarian in February.

What made you want to take on the teen librarian role?

I’d consider myself to be a creative person, and I work well with kids, so the job seemed to be a natural fit for me.

What is your favorite part of the job?

So far, I’ve been really enjoying coming up with ideas for programs, and I have fun working with the kids. I’ve also been enjoying collection development and researching which books to buy.

What do you see in the future for teen and tween programming?

Summer’s just around the corner, so I have a lot of fun and diverse ideas for programs that will give teens and tweens a chance to try new activities and crafts that they will hopefully enjoy.

What is your favorite book or author?

Hunter S. Thompson is a writer I’ve always admired ever since I first read his book Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas as a college freshman, to the point where I have his sheriff campaign’s logo tattooed on my arm. I’d also consider Gravity’s Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon to be the greatest work of fiction ever written. And also, Dune, because it’s awesome.