ELLY GRIMM
• Leader & Times
The children’s section at Liberal Memorial Library now has a new face with local Mikayla Knudsen.
As Knudsen tells it, her path to her new position, which she officially started in April, was rather winding.
“Before I came here, I worked with the VA for slightly more than 10 years, and the last part of that job was a night shift position,” Knudsen said. “This position actually came onto my radar because of theatre – I was doing a show with Royce's [Kitts] wife, Miriam, and she told me the position was open and thought I would be a good fit since I've helped at daycares and schools and similar places. In fact, my very first job was with KCSL Headstart after school program, and I also helped out at Knudsens Kozy Kid Kare with my aunt, and she ran that for years. Working with children has been part of my life basically since the beginning, especially since I'm the second of seven children. I've worked in childcare, healthcare and I worked at a nursing home for almost five years. I've also worked retail at JC Penney, food service at Sonic and IHOP, and I also currently work part-time at The Cozy Corner.”
Ultimately, multiple other factors fell into place for Knudsen to take the position.
“I didn't fully know what to expect with this position, I had never thought about being a librarian or going into that field. However, when I was interviewing with Royce, he was talking about different qualities I might have, and I was more excited for the opportunity to use some of the qualities and skills I haven't been able to use in a while,” Knudsen said. “Being very artistic but not being able to share that on a regular basis was one of those skills – my sister has a classroom at Fellowship Baptist Academy and I've helped her put together her classroom for many years so everything looked fun for the students. That's something I was able to do before that I hadn't really thought too much about, and then when I got the job at the library, I mentioned it to my sister and she said 'So now you're getting paid to do something you've already done for years!'”
And so far, Knudsen said, things have started very well.
“I thoroughly enjoy getting out and seeing people and being in crowds and managing that chaos. I love my organized chaos,” Knudsen said with a chuckle. “I have very much enjoyed being able to get out in the community with these outreach opportunities where I get to talk to children and get them excited for what we're doing at the library, whether it's reading in general or one of our programs like what we did with summer reading. There are so many children and families I get to work with and know, and it's great. I don't actually have any children of my own, but I have 13 nieces and nephews and one on the way, so being around children is just natural for me. Being around children is very energizing for me, and I love it. I have 100 percent enjoyed the camaraderie with all the other staff members – we're all good friends but we're not afraid to gently rib each other if the occasion calls for it, it's all in good fun.”
Knudsen added one of her goals is to help make the children’s section eve more fun for the library’s younger patrons.
“One of the first things I did was making a different theme each month for our Storytime events, and that's been a lot of fun so far – my first month was robots, so we had a lot of books and stories and activities about robots, and it was so much fun,” Knudsen said. “We had a space theme right before the summer reading program, so we had stories about astronauts and aliens and stars and all of that, which was also great. June was 'Color Your World,' like the summer reading theme, so we had stories about different animals and objects that bring a lot of color to people's lives. This month will have an 'Under the Sea' theme, so we'll be talking about the ocean and all of that stuff. With those themes, I would like to maybe look into having a month focused on music and/or a month focused on art, different things that could help tease out maybe unknown skills in the children who come to Storytime and help them build on that. I want to get children interested early so they'll keep coming in and learning and growing. I'm also running through a few different ideas for some other activities and making sure I'd have everything in place to make all of that happen, but there are a few things I'm waiting to plan out until the calendar gets closer to those times of the year. I'm always on the lookout for different programs and activities to get people into the library.”
Overall, Knudsen said, she hopes to see children keep coming into the library and visit her section.
“We have a lot of fun in the children's section even on days when there's not anything specific scheduled. I love going out and talking to the children during the day when they're out there, whether they've got a book or playing one of the video games we have,” Knudsen said. “We've also got a bunch of other toys and other fun things in that section, and it's great seeing those played with. I also always try and have spare coloring sheets on hand, those have proven pretty popular, so I want to keep that going. I've definitely enjoyed meeting everyone who's come through my part of the library. I want to thank Royce and everyone at Liberal Memorial Library for this opportunity. It's been so much fun so far and has helped me grow my creativity, and I've just thoroughly enjoyed everything I've been able to work on so far.”
