Darnetta Bolton’s studies in library science recently got a big boost. She is one of 61 candidates for the master’s degree in library and information science in the nation to be awarded the Spectrum Scholarship.
A job at the South Holland Library has been a training ground for Darnetta Bolton of Homewood who aspires to be librarian.
Now she’s taken her first step toward that goal and is being aided by the American Library Association. Bolton is one of 61 national candidates for the master’s degree in library and information science to be awarded the Spectrum Scholarship.
She will begin her degree this fall through the online program at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Her focus will be children’s literature.
The Spectrum Scholars program recognizes exceptional and diverse students for their commitment to diversity, interest in a librarian career, community outreach, academic ability and achievements and leadership potential.
Bolton has always been a voracious reader and in high school “I got all my teenage girlfriends reading. I would tell them ‘You’ll really like this book,’ and ‘How about we read this together?’ Reading really was just part of who I was, and I didn’t connect it to library science at all in any of my previous career aspirations,” she said.
Bolton left a career in advertising when she married and started her family. Today she reads to her five young children whom she homeschools. Her personal preference is fantasy books and said she’s reading a lot of parenting books these days.
It was a librarian at the Homewood Public Library who encouraged her to get a part-time job at a library to decide if being a librarian was for her.
“That’s what really started me on this journey, and I love kids and I love books,” she said.
But little children can be loud, and Bolton said she in the past worried about taking her 9, 8, 7, 5 and 3 year olds into a place known for quiet. Now she encourages parents to bring their young children to the library.
“I would never want to silence parents,” she said, stressing that she wants to change the notion that children shouldn’t be library patrons until they’re older. “I don’t want families to feel like that. We’re passionate about families being comfortable at the library.”