Librarian Sandra Hooper has worked the circulation desk in Torreyson Library for 21 years and said she absolutely loves it.

She gets to talk with students and get to know them and to listen to many interesting conversations. Hooper has a particular interest in speaking to students from different countries, but also enjoys speaking with the professors she has gotten to know over the years.

Before becoming a librarian at UCA, she taught English in England, Arkansas for a year before working at Blue Cross Blue Shield. After she had her sons, she became a stay-at-home mom and would volunteer at their school as a substitute teacher or band/choir mom.

Hooper has read many of the book in the library and she frequently downloads books from the Faulkner County Library on her tablet.

Besides working at Torreyson, she also volunteers at the Faulkner County Library for the Used Book Sale and ComiConway.  Hooper has volunteered at every ComiConway since it’s beginning and is now on the staff as a volunteer coordinator.

She said her favorite genre is cozy mysteries and said the queen of the cozies is Agatha Christe, author of the “Hercule Poirot” and “Miss Marple” series. Hooper said she also likes reading some of the cupcake cozies, where the stories are mixed with recipes.

One of the difficult parts about her job at the circulation desk is telling students how to work the laptops they can check out at the library. When began working at the library, computers were only used to check items in and out.

Now that there is a computer lab and students are able to check out laptops, she doesn’t know how to answer questions like “How do I save this paper?” or “How do I fix my margins?”

“Students assume that because I hand them a laptop that that means I know everything about a laptop, and I don’t necessarily,” Hooper said.

Since the library started checking them out to students, Hooper has learned a few things through other people telling students how to work the laptops. Hooper said it doesn’t come naturally to her because she wasn’t raised around that kind of technology.

For Hooper, the most interesting part of being in the library is getting people’s ideas for books to read. She said people are always suggesting good books or movies or books to stay away from. She also enjoys recommending books to others.

“I’m able to give people ideas of what they can read,” Hooper said. “People go up to me and say, ‘I want something to read. What are you reading?’ or ‘What would you read?’ especially if they like the same type of genre that I do.”

Photo by Callie Barnett.