Peggy Dominy, Drexel University, USA

Peggy Dominy, Information Services Librarian (Sciences and Math), Hagerty Library, Drexel University, Philadelphia, PA, USA

Q: Why did you choose to be a librarian?

A: When I was in high school, I developed a real love of books. I would buy books with any extra money I had. Then I would organize them in my room. My tolerant parents thought this quite unusual, but at least I wasn't on drugs. One day someone told me that was what librarians did. Wow, you could get paid for this?! However, librarianship was not encouraged by my high school counselor, who thought airline stewardess was more my line. So, just to confound the poor woman, I decided to go into science, astronomy specifically. So after a few years of physics, math, astronomy, marriage, a baby and a couple of college degrees, I found myself working in the astronomy departmental library at the University of Texas at Austin, full circle. The MLS degree from UT at Austin, was the natural outcome.

Q: What book are you reading right now?

A: Actually I am in the middle of three books. This really is not a weird as it sounds. I am reading and visually enjoying "Astonishing Animals, Extraordinary Creatures and the Fantastic Worlds They Inhabit" by Tim Flannery and Pete Schouten. I am in the middle, literally, of a book of cross-stitch charts of wild animals. I am working on a pattern depicting a family of Lemurs. And I am trying to design a flower bed mixture of perennials and annuals consulting my Encyclopedia of Gardening.

Q: Who do you admire the most (past or present) and why?

A: Now this is a tough one. I have to say, that I have always admired Eleanor Roosevelt. Here, a woman, by most standards, not a beauty, but someone who mixed it up with the powers that be of her time while keeping her compassion, her values, and inner strength. I have to say my greatest admiration is for the group of women who, during the latter half of the 19th and first half of the 20th century, chose a career path in the sciences, paving the way for my generation. They persevered through many gender prejudices. Their curiosity, persistence, and contributions to science are there to be relished.

Q: What was the first and last music record you bought?

A: The first record I purchased with my own money was Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto no. 1, performed by Van Cliburn, the first American to win the first International Tchaikovsky Contest, and my first celebrity crush. He was hot! My poor parents did not exactly appreciate me buying this "long-haired" music. This was before the "long-haired" music of another sort of the sixties. But at least I wasn't on drugs. The last "record" (cd) that I purchased was Freedom performed by the 12 Girls Band, a band of Chinese women who perform modern Western music and traditional Chinese music using a mix of modern and traditional Chinese instruments. My children find my interest in traditional music of different cultures rather strange. At least I am not on drugs.

Q: If you could have any career other than your chosen profession, what would you choose?

A: I guess the obvious answer here is astronomy. I still ponder the idea of teaching astronomy in academia, perhaps a small college somewhere with a small observatory, accenting the contributions of women astronomers, of course.

Q: If you could have dinner with any 3 people, past or present, who would they be?

A: The three people I would want to have dinner with would be my mother, Leta, her mother, Minnie, and her mother Dolley. I would drill them incessantly for stories about their lives and family, because, I am ashamed to say, that I did not ask enough about them when they were alive.

Q: Money no option, where would you like to go on vacation?

A: I would take a road trip through every state of the United States. Well, I would have make some accommodations for Hawaii. There is a whole lot of history and family stories to seek out and preserve, as well as natural beauty to soak in.

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