Sunday 28 June 2015

Jamaican public library director shares her career story

Author: By KIMBERLEY HIBBERT
Title: A leaf out of Karen Barton's book
Date published: Monday, June 22, 2015
Source: ALL WOMAN, Jamaica Observer
URL: http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/magazines/allwoman/A-leaf-out-of-Karen-Barton-s-book_19151716

Abstract:
Article features Karen Barton's career story about how she entered into librarianship, her offered career advice and mentions her hobbies and achievements.


Excerpt:

SHE says she would never trade her job for anything, and if afforded the chance to live again, she would choose the same career path.

Born and raised in Lionel Town, Clarendon, Karen Barton, the director general of the Jamaica Library Service (JLS) tells All Woman that after leaving Glenmuir High School, she sought employment before pursuing her tertiary education. She was employed as a library assistant at the Clarendon Parish Library, a job that would seal her fate in the industry.
"At that time I wasn't considering librarianship as a career. I just thought this was a job on my way to going into the diplomatic service," she shares.
"I had dreams of doing Spanish, different languages and everything it would take to go into the diplomatic field. I went into the library that summer but I never thought of it as a career."
But on meeting the now deceased senior librarian Gloria Baker, she fell in love with the discipline.