From Small Town Roots to Library Leadership: Defending Access and Inspiring Community

Summary

Chapter & Verse: Storytime from the Stacks Episode: From Small Town Roots to Library Leadership: Defending Access and Inspiring Community
Release Date: June 12, 2025

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Introduction and Guest Background

In the June 12, 2025 episode of Chapter & Verse: Storytime from the Stacks, hosts Debbie Makula and Jennifer Falcom welcome Tracy Logan Walker, the director of the Cadillac Wexford Public Library. The episode delves into Tracy's journey from her small-town roots to her current leadership role in librarianship, highlighting her dedication to defending access and fostering community engagement.

Path to Librarianship

Tracy shares her unconventional path to becoming a librarian, transitioning from a background in anthropology, sociology, and studio arts to library science. Reflecting on her career choice, she recounts:

“I was very lost, like a lot of people who end up in library science. And I just wanted to do something meaningful.” ([02:29])

Tracy credits the book What Color is Your Parachute? as a pivotal influence, which led her to discover her passion for librarianship after a transformative interview with a local information librarian.

Family Influence and Early Experiences

Growing up in the small town of Tustin, Osceola County, Tracy was surrounded by family members involved in education and administration, which subtly shaped her future career. A memorable childhood experience involved her father introducing her to the local library:

“Wednesday nights were library nights, and we shared books... he was getting me ready to be a librarian.” ([04:25])

This early exposure fostered a love for reading and community engagement, laying the foundation for her future in libraries.

Impactful Experiences in Librarianship

Tracy recounts a significant moment that reshaped her understanding of patron interactions. Initially warned about a "trouble" patron, she was pleasantly surprised by his respectful and engaged behavior during a teen program:

“That kid wasn't a problem because of who he was, but because people treated him like a problem.” ([05:59])

This experience reinforced her belief in the importance of giving back the respect and positivity she and her team offer to patrons.

Another touching story involves a parent expressing the library's role in building community:

“When we first moved here... we were so alone... we came to the library, and we made friends... that's because of the library.” ([07:45])

This moment underscored the profound emotional and community impact librarianship can have beyond mere service metrics.

Community Engagement and Leadership

As the director overseeing the construction of a new library in Manton, Tracy emphasizes the widespread community support as a testament to the library's broad impact:

“The overwhelming support from the community... shows me that we are having a broad impact because everybody's behind it.” ([08:24])

She highlights the reciprocal relationship between libraries and their communities, where mutual support fosters significant positive change.

Challenges in Modern Librarianship

Tracy addresses the erosion of trust in librarians over the past decade, attributing it to the pervasive spread of misinformation:

“People don't believe in our expertise anymore... Librarians are being mischaracterized in harmful ways.” ([14:30])

She emphasizes the critical role of libraries in combating misinformation and upholding intellectual freedom, despite facing misconceptions and challenges.

Intellectual Freedom and Advocacy

Operating in an overtly conservative area, Tracy champions the library's role in promoting diverse ideas and respecting individual beliefs:

“We trust our citizens to look at all the information and to make the right decisions.” ([16:18])

She shares an experience addressing intellectual freedom concerns at a local ministerial meeting, advocating for the library's commitment to providing unbiased information:

“You are bringing your bias to it, and we are here to provide that to you as best we can.” ([16:18])

Tracy argues that libraries must protect everyone's rights and foster an environment where diverse ideas can coexist and be critically examined.

Personal Motivation and Future Outlook

Tracy maintains a "book of joy" to remind herself of the meaningful interactions and positive impacts she has within the community:

“What makes the job worthwhile for me is helping people and building relationships with people.” ([19:08])

Looking ahead, she is excited about the increasing engagement of young people with libraries and the resurgence of reading as a cultural activity:

“I'm excited at how engaged young people are with libraries... reading as a cultural thing is coming back around.” ([21:32])

Tracy envisions libraries as vital social hubs that bridge gaps in an increasingly isolated world, fostering connections and intellectual growth.

Conclusion

Tracy Logan Walker's journey from a small-town upbringing to a leadership role in librarianship exemplifies the profound impact libraries have on individuals and communities. Her experiences underscore the importance of intellectual freedom, community engagement, and the unwavering support librarians provide in fostering inclusive and informed societies.

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Notable Quotes:

• Tracy Logan Walker: “I was very lost, like a lot of people who end up in library science. And I just wanted to do something meaningful.” ([02:29])
• Tracy Logan Walker: “That kid wasn't a problem because of who he was, but because people treated him like a problem.” ([05:59])
• Tracy Logan Walker: “When we first moved here... we were so alone... we came to the library, and we made friends... that's because of the library.” ([07:45])
• Tracy Logan Walker: “People don't believe in our expertise anymore... Librarians are being mischaracterized in harmful ways.” ([14:30])
• Tracy Logan Walker: “We trust our citizens to look at all the information and to make the right decisions.” ([16:18])
• Tracy Logan Walker: “What makes the job worthwhile for me is helping people and building relationships with people.” ([19:08])
• Tracy Logan Walker: “I'm excited at how engaged young people are with libraries... reading as a cultural thing is coming back around.” ([21:32])

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This summary encapsulates the essence of Tracy Logan Walker's insights and experiences, providing a comprehensive overview for those who haven't listened to the episode.

Transcript

[Debbie Makula]

Welcome to Chapter and Verse Storytime from the Stacks. This is an original podcast series from the Michigan Library association and the library cooperatives of Michigan. We want to give a huge shout out to our episode sponsor, Midwest Tape and Hoopla. I'm Debbie Makula, the executive director of the Michigan Library association, where we lead the advancement of all libraries through advocacy, education and engagement. And I'm joined by my co host, Jennifer Falcom.

[Jennifer Falcom]

I'm the director of the Mid Michigan Library League, which is a network of 36 libraries spanning 15 northern Michigan counties. The league works directly with library leaders, library directors and library boards, providing the resources and information necessary for those libraries to build structures responsive libraries in their communities.

[Debbie Makula]

That's great. So this is our eighth episode and what we're trying to do is to really provide some insight and inspiration from Michigan library leaders who bring purpose to their work and are providing our libraries with positive change, not only in their own libraries, but in the communities that we work and we live in. And with us today is Tracy Logan Walker, who is the director at the Cadillac Wexford Public Library. Welcome to the Pot podcast, Tracy.

[Tracy Logan Walker]

Thanks so much for having me. It's exciting.

[Debbie Makula]

It's nice to have you. So let's start at the beginning. Maybe not from the birth beginning, but tell a bit about your background and kind of where you came from.

[Tracy Logan Walker]

I was born in a library. No, I'm joking. I was born in the Upper peninsula of Michigan. My family lived there until I was about three years old and then we came down to be closer to my parents families. I grew up in a very small town and in Osceola county called Tustin, where I have 26 first cousins. Yeah, I had a very typical kind of country upbringing where everywhere you turn your family is in your face. My grandmother was the first grade teacher at our elementary school. My great aunt was the secretary at the superintendent's office. You couldn't get away with anything. It was impossible. There were always eyes on you. But my cousins tried really hard so there was some cover and eventually I went off to college and became a librarian.

[Jennifer Falcom]

How did you end up working in the library, Tracy?

[Tracy Logan Walker]

My undergraduate degree is in anthropology, sociology and studio arts. And you know what? It's hard to get a job in anthropology, sociology and studio arts. So after college I was very lost, like a lot of people who end up in library science. And I just wanted to do something meaningful. And I did what I always do when I feel lost and is I get more information. So I went to the public library and I checked out what color is your parachute? That wonderful tome. And I went through the entire book. I read the whole thing. I did all the exercises. And it kept telling me that if you love books and you want to help people, maybe you should be a librarian. So I arranged to do an interview with the information librarian at my local library. She was so kind. She sat down with me for an hour, and she let me ask her all of my little questions written down in my notebook. And she was so thorough and encouraging and lovely. And then two weeks later, she called me and said, hey, we've got a clerk position open. Would you like to try it? And I said, let's do it. And eventually, I went on to graduate school, and I am now the director of the library that I first had a job in.

[Debbie Makula]

That's wonderful. I know. He's just talking about your big family. Like, I don't have that big of a family. So did any of them influence going into librarianship at all?

[Tracy Logan Walker]

Absolutely. When I was about 11, my dad caught me sneaking his adult fantasy books. I would slip them out of his pile and hide them and read them in my room. And I was not as sneaky as I thought I was because he figured it out, and I thought he was gonna be so angry with me. And instead of being angry, he took me to the big library in the big town next to ours, and he got me a library card. And from then on, Wednesday nights were library nights, and we shared books. And on the drive into town, we talked about what we had been reading and what we were excited about and what we didn't like and why not. And I didn't know it then, but he was getting me ready to be a librarian. That's a great story.

[Jennifer Falcom]

What's the most interesting or unexpected thing that's happened to you during your library career and how's it impacted your life?

[Tracy Logan Walker]

The thing that people don't understand about working in public libraries is how much it's like a highbrow Walmart. I've seen so many crazy, wild, insane things in my time working with the public, and some of them have been very unpleasant, and some of them have been very hard to deal with. But a lot of them have been, like, beautiful, shining moments. And the one that kind of sticks out to me is when I was first working here in Cadillac, they asked me to take on some teen librarian duties because they didn't have a teen librarian. So we were throwing, like, high school interest programs, like come to our pre movie release Twilight night and stuff like that. And we had one young man who had been hanging out at the library a lot. And the information desk librarians warned me. They said, that kid's trouble. You gotta keep an eye on that kid. And he came to our. One of our first programs, and I thought, oh, gosh, he's here. What do I do? He's gonna be a behavior problem, right? He was beautiful the whole night. He was engaged. He was excited. He addressed us all as Miss this and Miss that. Like, he was so respectful and love. And at the end of the night, when we had wrapped everything up and we were ushering the kids outside, that kid stayed by the door and insisted on walking me and my colleague to our cars because he didn't want us walking by ourselves in the dark. That kid wasn't a problem. He was a problem because people treated him like a problem. And that's one of the big lessons that I've learned in my career, is that people give back what you give them.

[Debbie Makula]

A totally new perspective from somebody else really made a difference in probably his life as well as your own. Lovely. Is there a memorable moment where you feel like someone has made a bigger impact on your life that you can relate to us?

[Tracy Logan Walker]

I can definitely tell you a time when somebody had a really profound effect on my career. It is often hard to explain to people the sort of ephemeral benefits that we deliver. It's really easy to say we've checked out X number of books or we've done this number of programs. But it's not always easy to explain to people the emotional impact, the community impact that we have. And I was working in the kids room, and one of my storytime moms came up to me and she said, Ms. Tracy, you have to see the pictures from the water park. Because she and two of the other moms from our Storytime had made friends, and they all brought their three girls to the water park down by Mount Pleasant. And she was showing me the pictures and the girls playing in the water, and it was so cute and fun and stuff. And she said, Ms. Tracy, I just wanted to tell you that when we first moved here, we were so alone, and we didn't have family here, and we didn't have a community, and we were so lonely. And then we came to the library, and we came to Storytime, and we met you, and we made friends, and now we have support and we have a family here. And that's because of the library. And that moment really changed my perspective on we're not just delivering consumerables. Consumer. The word I'm looking for. We are. We're affecting people's lives in positive ways every day that we don't know the measure of. And that really. It really reassured me that what I'm doing is valuable.

[Debbie Makula]

I think that goes both ways for you affecting someone. Right. Because they obviously knew where you were coming from. And then somebody really affecting you that made you realize that there was such a positive nature to both aspects of the work that you're undertaking. Isn't that why we're here? Isn't that the reason that many of you have chosen to be librarians is that it's that you knew that there could be impact, and not just impact on individuals, but impact on your communities. Do you have any stories about making an impact a little bit bigger? Maybe not on a person, but maybe on the whole community and what you're doing.

[Tracy Logan Walker]

It's really hard to see the long view sometimes because you're dealing so much with. I'm fixing this problem. We're delivering this service. It's really hard, I think, to measure broad strokes. So we've been building a new library in Manton, and the support from the community really brings it home to me that, hey, we're not just helping one person today and one person tomorrow. The overwhelming support from the community, even from people who don't necessarily use the library but still recognize its value, shows me that, like, we are having a broad impact because everybody's behind it.

[Debbie Makula]

Yeah, that's really nice. It's nice that you get to work on a new library as well.

[Jennifer Falcom]

So what advice would you give your younger self just starting out in librarianship?

[Tracy Logan Walker]

Oh, gosh, I think choose joy. There are so many things about the job that can be hard, but there are so many things about the job that are beautiful. And you have to lean into the places where you feel joy and where you see joy coming back to you, that's going to make an impact, and that's going to keep you sane. There's always going to be the hard things, so lean into the joy when you can.

[Debbie Makula]

So that leads into. What do you wish people understood about your job? You've climbed the ladder, right? You've gone from clerk to some youth librarian to the director. What do you want people to know about the work, you know, over the course of many years of what don't they understand about your work?

[Tracy Logan Walker]

One of my personal pet peeves is when I tell somebody I'm a librarian, and they say back to me, oh, I would have loved to be a librarian. I love books. The doctor said that to me one time in the doctor's office. And without thinking I said, oh, I'd love to be a doctor. I love prescription drugs. People don't understand how much of the job is about people. It's not about books, it's about people. And in that way it is complicated and beautiful and difficult. It's not an easy job. It requires a lot of skills, and it's so much more about people than it is about books.

[Debbie Makula]

Let's take a quick break to hear more from our episode sponsor.

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[Jennifer Falcom]

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[Tracy Logan Walker]

In a matter of one to two years, those licenses are disappearing.

[Anne Ford]

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[Debbie Makula]

What are the skills that you think encompass your work?

[Tracy Logan Walker]

The ability to self educate really fast because you never know what's going to come at you in the public library. And it's one of the things that I actually really love about the job because I've always been really excited about learning. When I was growing up, we watched pbs, so I was like the kid in second grade who was obsessed with the Mayans. A job that keeps me engaged by forcing me to learn new stuff all the time is what makes me really excited. But that's a skill that people don't realize you need because let's say there's a pandemic and all of a sudden you need to understand about germ transfer on surfaces. Or the next year your issue is intellectual freedom and you have to understand constitutional law. And then maybe the next year you're building a new library and suddenly you have to understand how to do RFPs and talk to contractors. Like it. It's a fire that never stops burning.

[Jennifer Falcom]

It's the other duties as assigned at the bottom of job description.

[Debbie Makula]

Yeah, that's exactly it. I loved how you described it, though. Self educate. I've never heard that term before. I think if there is something that happens as a director or as you do, you have to self educate within seconds. You have to self educate. There's not a book about that. Like, I just have to know it.

[Tracy Logan Walker]

Just go after it.

[Jennifer Falcom]

I think librarianship is a lot like social work. There's a lot of social work elements in serving the public on a daily basis. And I don't think a lot of librarians who are first going in realize that.

[Debbie Makula]

Do you think it's because you've come up through the ranks, Tracy, that you understand that a little different?

[Tracy Logan Walker]

I think that's possible because I've had. I've done everything. And my first professional library job was at the Reed City Library, where I was the director of a small rural library. So I would be doing budgeting, and then I'd have to stop and go plunge the toilets. So you have to learn everything because you do everything, and there's a lot of value in that. And I think it's really important to understand where the people who are doing the boots on the ground work. What's difficult and valuable in their jobs, like a really good circulation clerk is worth their weight in gold, because people don't. What is it the Maya Angelou quote about how people don't remember what you said and they don't remember what you did, but they remember how you made them feel? Yeah. And that's a huge part of where we have to succeed as library staff.

[Jennifer Falcom]

John Kraska came to our library once from every library and did a training, and it was a millage training. But he talked about how we in librarianship talk about the difference between a librarian and a clerical person. And we know the difference, but to the person who's walking in the front door, they see every person as the librarian. And so the person who's working at the front desk is every bit as much of important, and maybe sometimes more so to the public than the library director because. Because they're the people who are on the front lines daily, engaging, and their response and ability to offer good customer service is just so incredibly important.

[Tracy Logan Walker]

So I absolutely agree with that.

[Jennifer Falcom]

What do you think is the biggest challenge facing librarians now, Tracy?

[Tracy Logan Walker]

I think it's about the war of information. I started out at a time when librarians were unquestionably respected. We were one of the most trusted professions in America kind of thing. And in the last 10 years, where I've seen that reputation erode because misinformation is so broadly available and so broadly embraced, I think that is one of our big issues, because people don't believe in our expertise anymore. They don't. And I can understand why people are skeptical of government. But in my experience, people don't generally associate libraries with government. They tend to think of us as this outside organizational existence, like libraries are their own thing. And I think that's Always been to our benefit. But now any sort of institute that's traditionally part of American life is under attack. And that attack comes from believing things that aren't true. Things like librarians are groomers, or librarians don't care that our children look at pornography and things like that. Like those beliefs are impeding our profession in a lot of ways. And I think part of that is because we're afraid to have hard conversations.

[Debbie Makula]

Will you just talk a little bit? We haven't really talked in any of our podcasts about intellectual freedom and the value of the values and the importance of our libraries in our communities. And you touched on that just a little bit in terms of what's happening in your community. Obviously, your community must love what's happening, or they wouldn't be building a new building. But intellectual freedom is such an important concept in our democracy and within our libraries. Can you just touch on that a little bit from your perspective?

[Tracy Logan Walker]

Yeah, absolutely. I work in a place that is overtly conservative, and I think it's important to have a deep respect for the people that you serve. I have respect for the right of everybody to believe whatever they want to believe. That's the magic of America. Right. But we also have to have a deep respect for every American's ability to sort through ideas, to embrace the plurality of ideas. That's the great part about this country, is we trust our citizens to look at all the information and to make the right decisions. And somebody has to stand up and say, this is all the information. It's not just this red information. It's not just this blue information. Information exists in an unbiased state. You are bringing your bias to it, and we are here to provide that to you as best we can. Because we're human beings, too. We make mistakes. We're willing to talk about your library and what we're doing in your library, but it's not my job just to protect your opinions. It's my job to protect everyone's rights as a society.

[Debbie Makula]

I think that's where we're heading with libraries, knowing that they are protecting the First Amendment and your choice, and that every person that walks into your library is a unique individual. Not one of them would read the same books. Not one of them would understand it the same way within critical thinking, would not process it the same way, whether they're young or old or rich or poor or whatever. And I think it's really important that as librarians, you all understand how valuable that is to a working society and that you continue to Promote it.

[Tracy Logan Walker]

I had a really interesting and wonderful reaction when our town was first experiencing some intellectual freedom issues. I went to the local ministerial association and I said, I'd just like to talk to you about how the library operates and how we make our decisions and how you can express your concerns as citizens. And I explained to them all of those things. And a gentleman in the front row said, you can't tell us that there isn't a trend to push certain ideas, and libraries are a tool of that trend. And another person in the back said, I don't agree with that at all. A hundred percent. I don't agree with that. And I said, this is a perfect example. You are all Protestants in this room. You are all have been to college. You've all studied the Bible. You are all working in the same field. Your opinions are at complete dichotomy from each other. How do you expect me, as an agent of the government, to tell one of you that your opinions are wrong? That can't be my job. You have to sort that out amongst yourselves and for yourselves.

[Debbie Makula]

And that's where choice becomes so important. Yeah, I get to choose. And a parent gets to go in and choose what's right for their family, but not for other families.

[Tracy Logan Walker]

Absolutely.

[Jennifer Falcom]

What motivates you to go to work every day?

[Tracy Logan Walker]

What motivates me to go to work every day? Oh, my gosh, our patrons. That's. I love. I. I keep something that I call my book of joy and it's a folder and it includes, like, it's little moments that I have with people that I write down. It's thank you cards that I've gotten from, like, kids tours and stuff. I think it's really important that when you're having hard days, you go back to and you revisit the things that make the job worthwhile. And what makes the job worthwhile for me is helping people and building relationships with people. When you live in a smaller place, like, you go out and there's no privacy, like the number of times I've been, like, quietly eating at a restaurant and someone has popped up in front of me and said, Ms. Tracy. But honestly, I love those moments. I want to raise the library to a level of celebrity in our town. People should think about the library and be excited. And if they see me and they're excited about the library and I can do that for them.

[Debbie Makula]

Can you share a little bit of how you share your love of libraries with maybe your family? Because that's a little harder than just, you know, you can't call them patrons. Right.

[Tracy Logan Walker]

It's so much harder to do with family. The thing that always cracks me up about when people find out you're a librarian. And I still, even with my family who has known me all this time, there's this weird kind of, like, shame when people approach me sometimes. Oh, Ms. Tracy, I'm so glad to see you. But we haven't been in the library for a while, or we haven't been reading, or I've just been listening to audiobooks. Like, they always downplay like what they're doing isn't good enough somehow. Like, I'm going to judge them. Man, all I read is weird fantasy books from the 90s and obscure nonfiction. I have no room to judge when people approach me about, like, books or anything like that. My job is to be super enthusiastic and super supportive. You're reading Romantasy. Awesome. That's great. I want to talk to you about that. Tell me what you like about it. I hated fourth wing. That's fine. Let's talk about why you loved fourth wing. The important thing is that you are deriving benefit from it. I have no room to talk and judge you about how you're doing that.

[Debbie Makula]

It's like they're guilty or something.

[Tracy Logan Walker]

Yes. I don't have a severe face, but they come to me like, I'm here to report my sins. Ms. Tracy. Oh, gosh. Let's go.

[Jennifer Falcom]

What are you excited about for the future in libraries? Tracy?

[Tracy Logan Walker]

Honestly, I'm excited at how engaged young people are with libraries. Some information just came out about how millennials and Gen Z read two paper books a month. I love that, like, reading as a cultural thing is coming back around. We're having so much success with book clubs, with our young adults, and things that we do out in the community that engage people about literature and poetry readings and stuff. I think there are a lot of people in our country who are hungry for a public intellectual life, and we can help them get there. Like, we can provide information, we can provide books. We can provide opportunities for people to make connections and have those incredible discussions and discuss the value of ideas. That makes me really excited. I don't care about technology. I care about people.

[Debbie Makula]

Which makes your library. You promote being a social hub. Right. And so people meeting people in person and being present is where a lot of your conversation had to this.

[Tracy Logan Walker]

Yeah. One of my favorite things is to see two people come to a library program and make friends. That's amazing. We live in a world that isolates us, that keeps us lonely, that the library can help people bridge those gaps. Makes me so proud.

[Debbie Makula]

That's a great way to end this interview. So thanks again for joining us today.

[Tracy Logan Walker]

Tracy thank you.

[Debbie Makula]

And thanks to everyone for listening to the June episode of Chapter and Verse Story Time from the Stacks. We also wish to thank our episode sponsor, Midwest Tape and Hoopla. Join us each month for new episodes and be sure to subscribe to our podcast on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you listen to your favorite podcasts. Much appreciation for listening, and we'll see you in July when Kate Van Aken, the co op director at White Pines Library Cooperative, and I will sit down with our guest, Brianne McRae, who is the director of the Bad Axe Area District Library.