1. Name, Job Title, and Location
Harriette Hemmasi, Dean of the Library, Lauinger Library
2. What do you do – in 10 words?
My job entails a lot so I will throw a few words out there that represent what I (think/hope) I do: coordinate, advocate, reflect, provoke, understand, question, encourage, imagine, and practice.
3. Where are you from?
I am from Sherman, TX which is near Dallas. It’s a small town and home to an even smaller liberal arts college, Austin College, where I studied music while still in high school and took summer classes.
4. Do you enjoy celebrating Halloween? What was your favorite costume?
I don’t celebrate Halloween now but when I was a child my older brother and I used to go trick or treating together. In general, he was such a sweet kid — a real crowd-pleaser, whereas I could be quite obstinate and opinionated. To everybody’s surprise, one year my Halloween costume was so great that people seemed to like me better. My brother got so upset that he threw his sack of candy to the ground!
5. What are you reading (or watching, or playing, or listening to) right now?
I love to read cookbooks and recipes to decide what I am going to make. Recently, I’ve been very interested in savory breads. One recipe that worked well is a bread that includes ham, cheese, pepper, and green olives. It’s really good with soup!
6. If you could time travel, where would you go and why?
The future. I would love to be able to look back and see the impact of technology on the world. Of course, I would also be very interested to see how today’s current events will be evaluated over time. In libraries, we talk about preparing students for the future. While we know about the past and can experience at least some elements of the present, we can’t really know what the future holds. What we can do is help students discover and understand the past and give them opportunities to experiment and contribute to the future.
7. What was your very first job?
The first year I graduated from high school I began to take summer classes at Austin College. That same summer I started my very first job working in the college mail room!
8. Do you have a creative outlet or hobbies like music or crafting?
I am not a crafter but I am a musician. I play piano and sing. Singing went by the wayside some years ago but I do still play the piano sometimes. Because I don’t play very often, I tend to return to old favorites by Bach and Schumann that are still somehow part of my muscle memory.
9. In all of the libraries that you have worked in over your career, is there an unexpected or delightful item or collection that you’ll never forget?
When I was in library school at UC Berkeley, my focus was on music librarianship and I had a chance to work in the music library — which was (and still is) a fabulous library. The head of the library talked to me about the vast collections and sometimes he would show me different materials held in the vault. One of the scores in the vault was of particular interest because it was unidentified. The head librarian had been studying the score for a long time. As I was preparing to graduate he was finally able, through his training as a Handel scholar, to verify that the unidentified piece was, indeed, a lost work by Handel. His determination and discovery had a big impact on me, giving me an appreciation for primary source materials and also the will to explore the unknown.
10. If you didn’t work in libraries what do you think you’d be doing?
I’ve always thought I would like to write even though I haven’t done much so far. I’d like to write about libraries and higher education.