This is a long one, so let's get right into my interview with Tosca Waerea. I only ever had four solid goals in life: to sing in a band, to teach, to work in a library, and to visit New Orleans. Obviously, there were other life goals in and around these four, but they're the ones I remember as being the most clear, and certainly, the longest-lasting. As much as libraries were on that list, I fell into them by happy accident. I was a Maori teacher aide (responsible for designing, implementing, and then delivering a Maori language program across 15 classes of children ages 5-12), and the senior teacher in charge of the library asked if I'd be interested in helping out. Libraries were fairly important in my life. My parents are both avid readers and, as a result, all seven of my siblings and I are as well. We moved around a lot in my early childhood, and every town we moved to would see my mum visiting the local library to gauge the temperature of the town (politically, economically, and culturally), so I've always been very comfortable in libraries. I'd cheesily say they were my second home. Two years later, I applied for a role with a tertiary [i.e., academic] library. Its focus was training teachers, and I remained there for 2 years before I decided to try my hand at public libraries. I didn't know it at the outset, but I would go on to spend 14 years in public libraries. I would count that time as both the best and the worst working environment of my life.
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