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ELIZABETH “PEACH” SCHROEDER
Elizabeth “Peach” Schroeder was born in Minneapolis, Maryland before coming to Texas for a missions program three years ago. She met her husband, a youth minister, and has been in Littlefield since March, but has been the Assistant Librarian at the Lamb County Library since July.
Schroeder said she has always loved to read and essentially grew up in the library and has always had a passion for literature and community building.
“I’ve done community building on it’s own and I’ve done literature and research on its own, but to be able to put both of those together, it’s awesome,” Schroeder said.
The library always has some activities planned for the month, including Story Time, Teen Night, the Lily Society, and Toddler Time, formerly Baby Lap Sit.
Schroeder said Toddler Time is for three-years and up and Story Time is for about four-years.
“ So during those, we have crafts,” Schroeder said. “So they always have songs and they always have crafts and they always have stories. So that’s every week, on Tuesday and Wednesday. The story times are always themed, right now it’s like fall and monsters and leaves and trees and they learned about that.”
Schroeder said every Thursday is Teen Night, which is themed. During one of the Teen Nights in October, the theme was the Ultimate Truth or Dare.
“They sat in a circle and played an intense game of Truth or Dare. I would say intense just because it’s a lot of people. So part of the scary thing about the dares of Truth or Dare is that they’re embarrassing. So they’re like slow dancing to fast songs and having to put whipped cream on their face. Somebody had to act like a dog, that’s why we call it the Ultimate Truth or Dare to increase the excitement,” she said with a laugh.
Sometimes the library will host authors to do book signings. In Oct. they had the author Shelco do a book signing.
“I think with the book signings, we love to have the library kind of hopping and having stuff happening all the time. It’s a cool thing to have and this time we’re actually going to have crafts, because its a kids book. So its about monkeys so they’ll be making monkeys and it’s cute and it’s good to have people who read interact with the authors because if we can enrich the community with that then we try to do that reaching out to them,” Schroeder said.
Schroeder said the key to getting kids excited about reading and books is to network.
“Honestly, with teens, it’s all about networking, but also keeping events fresh and fun-sounding and having incentives. We have prizes, which helps, too. A lot of the kids are actually in T.A.F.E., but it’s a group of people who want to be teachers or want to support teaching as profession. They come and they actually get points. Others just come because they heard about it and they show up. It really is a mix there.”
Schroeder said the babies and younger kids come from the daycare’s in the area, like Kingdom Kids and Gingerbread House, but if she personally knows someone with a baby or toddler, she will mention Toddler or Story Time to them.
Schroeder said she is currently reading four books at once, including “Power of a Praying Wife” by Stormie Omartian.
“I’m reading “Knowing God” by J. I. Packer, it’s good...but also I read like five books at a time,” she said with a laugh.
Schroeder said she majored in classical literature and philosophy and loves authors like Earnest Hemingway.
“Charles Dickens, Toni Morrison, but...I’d say classical literature and Christian non-fiction are my favorite genres. Satire is not a genre, but things that have satire – that’s why I love Charles Dickens...He takes his time and it’s usually satire. He’s usually like making commentary...but I really do like things that make me think and things that have ideas that change me and get me excited,” Schroeder said, enthusiastically.
Schroeder said she loves her job, because she gets to be surrounded by books, learn more about books, learn about different genres through the patrons of the library, along with having a good working environment.
“This is a really good working environment, it’s always encouraging and they truly love children,” Schroeder said. “So, if you can imagine, people who are kind to work with, people who are excited about what they do, and people who [are] excited and invested, they love to create and so do I. I’ve never had this great of a working environment...I never expected to. Also, I would say that the people who come in here are, and the kids are, good. I know that’s such a lame adjective to use, but they are friendly and usually pretty patient and honestly, compared to other jobs, these patrons are very easy to serve, very interested in whats going on. They’re engaging.”
Schroeder said she thinks reading is important because learning and growing is important. She said reading is one of the best ways to learn and grow. Both by strengthening the mind, because it is a muscle, but also because it strengthens the imagination, which is a way of learning.
“I would also say reading is important because I think you have to work hard to be a reader,” Schroeder said. “Because with other forms of media, all of the work is done for you. Being able to conceptualize the concepts, whether you’re just trying to escape your life or whether you’re trying to think and understand reasoning that the author’s trying to communicate. That hard work that you have to do to be a reader, and stick with it and to actually benefit from it, betters you as a person.”
Schroeder said she thinks reading is also important because it helps further education and enriches the way people can think and effectively communicate in ways that other media does not. Schroeder said she wants to encourage people to come to the library.
“If you or anybody you know...their lives would be enriched by things that we offer, take us up on it. Also, if there is something you’d like to see, I mean we always listen. Get involved. Join the party. Read some books,” Schroeder said with an enthusiastic laugh.