K.C. Williams on Library Management, Programming, and Grant Writing
Classes taught: Grant writing, Adult Services, Rural Library Management
Lecturer: K.C. Williams
Location: Lives in Knoxville, works in Maryville, Tennessee as director of the Blount County Public Library.
Academic/Work Background: I didn’t know I’d be a public librarian, it looked like the hardest type of librarian job.
I went to school to be a medical librarian in the early ‘80s, graduated in ’84 from the University of Southern Mississippi. The year I graduated college is the same year that medical librarians were no longer mandatory, so there were no jobs. So I got a job in Dallas as a commercial real estate librarian doing records management for a large firm and stayed there for almost four years. Then I went back home to Gulfport, Mississippi. My other degree is in dance – I have a minor in it, but almost enough hours to have another bachelor’s degree. So I took over a dance studio for five years and worked part-time in a college library. I’m pretty sure at that time I still didn’t know what I wanted to be when I grew up.