(This week The Columbian-Progress spotlights Columbia-Marion County Public Library Technical Services Librarian Mona Swayze.)
Q: When and where were you born?
A: I was born Dec. 30, 1970, in Anchorage, Alaska. My dad was in the Air Force, and I was born on the Elmendorf Air Force Base.
Q: Where did you attend school?
A: I graduated from Columbia High School and Mississippi State. I graduated from Mississippi State in 1992 after I changed my major several times, but I got a degree in broadcast production.
Q: What was your childhood like?
A: It was a very idyllic southern childhood. We were outside playing and helped in the house, with work and in the garden whether it was shelling peas or shucking corn. Whatever we had to do was very family oriented. Saturdays were for shopping, and Sundays were for spending time with extended family.
Q: Where do you work? Tell us about your job/company.
A: I am the technical services librarian at the Columbia-Marion County Public Library. I do acquisitions of new adult material and catalog that material as well as any other material that comes in for the children’s department or the resource room. I also deal with computer issues. I’m not an IT person, but I’m learning on the go. I also work at the other branches when they need me.
Q: What led you to your profession?
A: I worked here when I was in high school and early in college at the Mississippi State library. I loved it even though I didn’t think I would go into it. I fell into this job when I started part time in January 2003 shelving. The job I have now came open, and I interviewed for it and got the job starting May 1, 2003. I love it. I love being here, helping with the programs and talking with our patrons.
Q: What do you enjoy most about your job?
A: Watching people realize they can do what they need to do on their own when you help them at the computer, introducing patrons to a new author they had never heard of and watching the interactions between people. Nearly every day all of our tables are full and you see people sitting together that didn’t come in together, but they are sharing the table and talking. I just love watching that interaction.
Q: What is the most challenging aspect of your job?
A: Having the time to catalog all of the material. We’re a small staff, and we all wear different hats. This month we’ve been in our summer reading program, and we’ve had no less than seven programs in a week between three library branches.
Q: What advice would you give someone considering your career path?
A: See if you can job shadow someone. If you think you want to do then go for it. I didn’t go to school for library sciences, so everything I’ve learned has been on the job. I’ve had great mentors.
Q: What was your first job?
A: I had two at the same time in high school. I worked here and I worked at Ward’s.
Q: Who is the person who has been most influential in your life?
A: As far as the library aspect it would be Sara Carter Swinney. She led me to this job and showed me how to talk to homeless as well as our most influential people in the community with the same regard. Personally, it would be my parents, Harry and Jean Thompson. They have shown me how to be who I need to be to raise my children.
Q: What is your spouse’s name? What does he do for a living?
A: Carlton Swayze. We’ve been married for 21 years, and he is a crane operator.
Q: Do you have children?
A: Christina Jade is 19 and Connor is 13.
Q: If you could have anything for your last meal on earth, what would it be?
A: I am a steak person, so I would want the most expensive cut of steak you could find medium rare with a salad and sweet tea.
Q: If you could travel anywhere in the world, where would you go?
A: I have several on my bucket list. I want to go back to Anchorage because I was only about 2 when we moved to Mississippi. My parents are from here — my dad is from Lamar County and my mom here in Marion County. This is all I’ve ever known other than when I was at Mississippi State. I also would love to go overseas to see France and Italy. I have a friend from Sweden, and I would love to go see her.
Q: What hobbies do you like to do in your spare time?
A: I love to read, and I love flower gardening. I love spending time with family and spoiling my great nieces.
Q: What do you enjoy about living and working in Columbia and Marion County?
A: The fellowship, comradery and the way people come together when there is a need. I love being able to walk down the street and know the majority of people that I see.
Q: If you could have lunch with anyone from your life or history, who would it be and why?
A: My grandparents, they’re deceased. I would love to know more about the family history. I know some about how my dad’s parents, Harry and Gertrude Thompson, met, but I don’t know how my mom’s parents, Rillis and Emma Lee Moree, met. I would love to know how that came about. My grandfather, Rillis, instilled on me to be kind to everyone and to love one another, and that’s how I try to live my life and how we try to raise our children.
Q: If you didn’t have to worry about money, what would you do all day?
A: Exactly what I’m doing right now. I love it. I would not have to worry about earning the money to pay the bills we have, so I would be able to focus more on what I’m doing and enjoy it more. I enjoy it a great deal right now, but it would give me great pleasure to be where I’m at now even though I wouldn’t have to be.
Q: Would you rather read a good book or watch a good movie and why?
A: Read a good book. The book is always better than the movie. When you read a book as opposed to watching a movie, you can inflect yourself and knowledge onto the characters and give them the speaking voices that you want them to have. The books always go into much more detail than the movies do.
Q: What moment in your life has had the biggest impact on you?
A: Something that has made me live for my children was the loss of a child and three miscarriages. That has shown me that we need to enjoy what comes our way, good or bad, take it as it comes and spend time with our loved ones.
Q: What would be the No. 1 thing on your Bucket List?
A: To meet Greg Iles, a Mississippi author well known for his mysteries. I would love to travel to all 50 states, too.
Q: If you could describe your morals in three words, what would they be?
A: Honesty, loyalty and trust.
Q: How would you like to be remembered?
A: I would want people to remember that she gave her all to everything she did, be it family, work or friends, and that she truly did live the way her grandfather told her to by loving one another.
— Joshua Campbell
Pictured Above: Mona Swayze said she would continue working at the Columbia-Marion County Public Library even if she didn’t need the money. “I love it,” she said. | Photo by Joshua Campbell
