Sister Kathleen Flanagan

Since the fall of 2014, I have worked at the Benedictine College library. I started solely in circulation, being at the front desk, greeting the students as they came in, managing both student and faculty/staff overdue materials and trying to clean up the patron database. I am now a reference librarian and instructor. I teach Information Literacy, a one-hour for credit class, each quarter. Every third semester, I teach Young Adult Literature to secondary English majors.

I am also the monastery librarian. Fortunately, Sister Deborah Peters takes care of much of the day-to-day work: cataloging books, creating displays, and making the library a welcoming environment. She has others who help her labeling books and re-shelving. It takes a village! I rely on all the sisters to suggest materials for our library.

As time allows, I work the reception desk in Dooley Center, usually on the weekends. When I worked from home at the monastery, I was able to cover some week day hours as needed, because I could do my library work while answering the phone.

When I first started at the BC library, my co-workers dubbed me the “Walmart greeter of the library” because I greet the students as they come into the library. Hospitality is essential to the life of a Benedictine, I felt welcoming students and others was important. We are co-sponsors of Benedictine College; I am grateful to be able to share in this sponsored ministry.

I may be one of the few sisters students see and get to know. I represent Mount St. Scholastica here at the college. I am grateful to be a part of the home community. I enjoyed my time living on mission and working away from the monastery, but there is something very satisfying about being at home. Interacting daily with the larger community is a real blessing. Over the years, I have very much enjoyed time spent with our monastery elders. Yes, I could be an academic librarian as a lay person, but my days are enriched through the common heritage shared by all of us at the Mount.