Meet Tracey Rinehart! An RT Member Profile

By A. Faulkner

What is your role in the GLBTRT?

Currently more of a silent member, keeping up with RT topics and discussions, but I look forward to increasing my involvement in the future.

What does the GLBTRT mean to you?

It means there is a voice and advocacy within the larger association for a group that can sometimes go unrepresented in other organizations.  I know there are people like me here, and that has provided a safe starting point for me in getting to know more about ALA as a whole.

Are you involved in ALA in other ways?

I am also a member of LIRT, ACRL, and GAMERT.

What professional work do you perform?

User Experience Librarian in the Business Library at Southern Methodist University.

What would you like to share about your personal life?

My husband and I have two large rescue kitties that live with us and pretty much run our home lives.  We are also avid gardeners.  When we moved into our home, there were 0 gardens; we now have 7.

What are you most proud of?

When I am able to connect people with information that leads to a passion or a greater understanding.  I was a bookseller before becoming a librarian and the feeling of being able to help someone has always given me purpose.

Who inspires you?

My husband.  He is truly the nicest person I know and inspires me to look on the bright side of things, even when I don’t want to.

What are your goals? (Professional and/or personal.)

Though I have been selling books and media most of my adult life, I am relatively new to the librarian profession.  I would like to continue to grow and become more involved in this, and other, RT’s within ALA.

What do you think (or predict) is the future of libraries?

Libraries will continue to be vital community and information centers, but it will be necessary to adapt to their populations’ needs in such a way that may not always emphasize growing a book collection.

In what direction would you like the GLBTRT to move in the future?

I think remaining visible within the larger organization is most important.

If you could be transported into the fictional world of any book, where would you go?

Hogwarts

What would be the title of your autobiography?

If I could get permission from Kazuo Ishiguro, I would use his quote, “There was another life that I might have had, but I am having this one.”

If you could only choose one song to play every time you entered a room for the rest of your life, what would it be?

Fanfare for the Common Man.

If you could have a dinner party with 5 culturally or historically significant figures, living or dead, who would you invite?

Annie Lennox, Ian McKellen, Patrick Stewart, John Cusack, Freddie Mercury

What is the meaning of life?

We can only be what we give ourselves the power to be. – Native American Proverb ~ A Cherokee Feast of Days

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