NEWS
6 THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
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NEWS
WEDNESDAY, JULY 26, 2006
Weaver turned librarian
KU digital librarian saves weaving fascination for pastime
BY ADRIENNE BOMMARITO
abommarito@kansan.com
KANSAN STAFF WRITER
"I left my cheese on the porch, can I still eat it?"
These are the types of questions that Sarah Goodwin Thiel answered when she worked at the Kansas City Public Library as a reference librarian in Kansas City, Mo.
The library was a statewide reference center offering phone assistance to Missouri residents. Anyone could call and ask a question and Thiel would help them out to the best of her ability.
The time limit set for a librarian to answer a question: A few hours.
The library has an extensive reference collection, which is where Thiel found most of the answers to the posed questions.
"It was suppose to be a library question, but," Thiel said jokingly about the cheese question and other questions she's received.
However, she said the position was vital to some Missouri residents who took the phone calls seriously.
Thiel said the reference position reminded her of how KU Info used to be.
Thiel now works as the digital imaging librarian for the University of Kansas. She creates digital collections used for research by KU and institutions nationally.
"I also oversee the imaging lab in the Spencer Research Library where we photograph large or fragile library materials for publication, research and display in KU's Luna Insight image management system. Web site development and various patron requests," Thiel said.
patron request.
She still thinks of the job she left behind, sometimes.
"It was great," she said. "Before people had Internet access a lot of people would call with medical questions, because they had no one else to ask."
Thiel heard all kinds of interesting questions throughout the day at the library. Her family and friends would wait to hear the question of the day.
"I was the local hero, because I had so many bizarre questions."
Thiel said she received an average of 25 questions every day.
She became fascinated with weaving during her undergraduate years at Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, where she majored in art and design.
When she's not telling her family about the questions of the day, Thiel spends her time weaving.
Thiel received her first loom from a friend 20 years ago. It was a floor antique rug loom that she still uses today. When she has free time, Thiel makes rugs, blankets, tapestries and towels. Most of the items she gave away as gifts.
"It's satisfying to give something you made away," she said. "Just a fun thing for me to do."
Currently, Thiel is working on a braided rug for the entryway of her house, a project she started years ago.
The rug is an ongoing joke in her home, because she has been working on it for so many years. Now it's only about four feet by three feet but Thiel said it will have to grow in size before it can decorate her entryway.
Edited by Janiece Gatson
Joshua Bicket/KANSAN
Sarah Goodwin Thiel, a digital imaging librarian in the Spencer Research Library, displays one of her many projects, a rug, that she made by hand. Aside from working in the library, one of Goodwin Thiels hobbies is weaving, something that she started in college as an art major. She's worked in the Spencer Library for five and a half years.