Priscilla Delgado
San Marcos, Texas
Describe your career as a librarian and where you work.
My librarian career started in 2011. I spent seven wonderful years as the school librarian at Bowie Elementary in San Marcos, Texas. I left that job in 2018 to enroll in an online doctoral program at St. John’s University, and for the past year I have been working for TeachingBooks.net as a Resource Classification Specialist. TeachingBooks is based in Wisconsin, but I work from home in Texas. I’m involved with various committees within the Texas Library Association, including serving as chair of the Tejas Star Reading List.
Share something about yourself not related to librarianship.
I am a major Elvis fan. I’ve been to Graceland twelve times and attended Elvis Week for the thirtieth and fortieth anniversaries of his passing. Over the years I’ve had the honor of meeting people who worked with or were related to Elvis. Contrary to popular belief, I was not named after Priscilla Presley, but I love it when people ask me that.
How does your faith inspire or fit in with your work?
My Catholic faith is at the core of who I am, and I love being able to include it in my volunteer work at church. I’ve given various presentations on using children’s books in the religious education classroom at catechist trainings and retreats, and I’ve used that background knowledge of my own experiences as a catechist and lector at my church.
When and why did you get involved in the CLA?
I stumbled upon the CLA while preparing to attend the American Library Association annual conference in New Orleans in 2018. I was trying to find a church close to the conference center so that I could attend Mass and I happened to see a post on Twitter from the CLA with a map of nearby churches. I saw the CLA’s session in the conference app and noticed Kathryn Shaughnessy’s name, who I recognized as one of the librarians from St. John’s. I reached out to her and made plans to attend CLA’s session at the conference. I became a member soon thereafter.
What has been your most rewarding experience with the CLA?
For me, the combination of my faith and my career has been the most amazing encounter. I feel like God placed the CLA in my path at the right time. This has opened my eyes and heart to new possibilities and ideas of serving in my career and in my church as a Catholic librarian. I hope to become more involved in the CLA in the near future.